Frédéric Chopin Quotes
February 22, 1810 – October 17, 1849
More Frédéric Chopin Quotes
Sometimes I can only groan, and suffer, and pour out my despair at the piano!
Frédéric Chopin— As quoted in Chopin and the Swedish Nightingale.
Play Mozart in memory of me— and I will hear you.
Frédéric Chopin— Murmured by Chopin on his death-bed.
I wish I could throw off the thoughts which poison my happiness, but I take a kind of pleasure in indulging them.
Frédéric Chopin— As quoted in Chopin.
— Variant translation: I wish I could throw off the thoughts which poison my happiness. And yet I take a kind of pleasure in indulging them.
Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.
Frédéric Chopin— As quoted in If Not God, Then What?.
Here you doubtless observe my tendency to do wrong against my will. As something has involuntarily crept into my head through my eyes, I love to indulge it, even though it may be all wrong.
Frédéric Chopin— As quoted when he talked about his piano concerto, op.11
I could express my feelings more easily if they could be put into the notes of music, but as the very best concert would not cover my affection for you, dear daddy, I must use the simple words of my heart, to lay before you my utmost gratitude and filial affection
Frédéric Chopin— As quoted in Chopin's Letter.
You already know when I'm writing, so don't be surprised if it's short and dry, because I'm too hungry to write anything fat
Frédéric Chopin— As quoted in his letter to Jan Bialoblocki, written in Zelazowa Wola and dated back to December 24th 1826
Concerts are never real music, you have to give up the idea of hearing in them all the most beautiful things of art.
Frédéric Chopin— Said to one of his students, according to "Chopin: Pianist and Teacher: As Seen by His Pupils" by Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger
Hats off, gentlemen — a genius! If the mighty autocrat of the north knew what a dangerous enemy threatened him in Chopin's works in the simple tunes of his mazurkas, he would forbid this music. Chopin's works are canons buried in flowers.
Frédéric Chopin— Robert Schumann, 1831
After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed, and mourning over tragedies that were not my own.
Frédéric Chopin— Oscar Wilde, 1891
Chopin has done for the piano what Schubert has done for the voice.
Frédéric Chopin— 'The France musicale' review of Chopin's concert held on 26 April 1841. As quoted in Nocturne: a life of Chopin.
Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.
Frédéric Chopin— As quoted in If Not God, Then What? (2007) by Joshua Fost, p. 93.
Sometimes I can only groan, and suffer, and pour out my despair at the piano!
Frédéric Chopin— As quoted in Jorgensen's Chopin and the Swedish Nightingale (2003, p. 26)
One needs only to study a certain positioning of the hand in relation to the keys to obtain with ease the most beautiful quality of sound , to know how to play long notes and short notes and [to attain] unlimited dexterity ... A well-formed technique, it seems to me, [is one] that can control and vary [ bien nuancer ] a beautiful sound quality.
Frédéric Chopin— Frédéric Chopin, in Robin Elliott, et al., Centre and Periphery, Roots and Exile: Interpreting the Music of István Anhalt, György Kurtág, and Sándor Veress, Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 15 September 2011, p.42
I'm a revolutionary, money means nothing to me.
Frédéric Chopin— Quoted in Arthur Hedley, Chopin (1947)
