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added short biography
Nevertheless, his romanticism concealed a craftsmanship thoroughly schooled in older [[Counterpoint|contrapuntal]] and [[harmony|harmonic]] methods - he was an avid admirer of [[J.S. Bach]], and his works reveal a masterly combination of textural and harmonic innovation combined with old school discipline.<ref>George Marek R. and Maria Gordon-Smith,'' Chopin. A biography''. Harper & Row, New York, San Francisco, London 1978.</ref>
Nevertheless, his romanticism concealed a craftsmanship thoroughly schooled in older [[Counterpoint|contrapuntal]] and [[harmony|harmonic]] methods - he was an avid admirer of [[J.S. Bach]], and his works reveal a masterly combination of textural and harmonic innovation combined with old school discipline.<ref>George Marek R. and Maria Gordon-Smith,'' Chopin. A biography''. Harper & Row, New York, San Francisco, London 1978.</ref>
==Life and Character==
Chopin was born in the village Żelazowa Wola, [[Poland]], to a father who was a French national and a Polish mother. The family later moved to Warsaw when Chopin's father was offered a job teaching French. Chopin was a child prodigy, and through his father's connections with other intellectuals and aristocrats, he was able to travel outside of Poland at an early age to give concerts. This culminated in a series of concerts in [[Vienna]] in 1830, which were greeted with acclaim. During this sojourn, however, the November Uprising broke out in Poland, and Chopin found himself stranded in Vienna. He wandered through [[Munich]] and Stuttgart, before finally settling in [[Paris]], where he would remain on and off for the rest of his life.
Chopin quickly made for himself a good living teaching piano, and made friends among the aristocracy, as well as among the intellectual and musical elite of the French capital. He also played many concerts in aristocratic salons, and continuously composed ground-breaking piano works. He most closely identified with Polish dance forms, which found an eager audience among Parisians, who sympathized with the Polish revolutionary cause.
In 1836, he met the radical author George Sand, the pen name of a Baronness Duvant, and they began a long relationship which would continue for the next 10 years. The couple spent a year in Majorca and several years in the country estate of Nohant, where Chopin wrote some of his greatest works. He was however always hindered by poor health, and showed early signs of the [[tuberculosis]] which ultimately killed him.
Chopin and Sand parted company in 1847, after a series of familial tensions. His health continued to worsen, and after a brief stay in [[London]], Chopin died in 1849.
==Works==
==Works==