Chopin: The Man and His Music | Page 2

her evidence the composer's natal
day was February 22, 1810 and his christening occurred April 28 of the
same year. The following baptismal certificate, originally in Latin and
translated by Finck, is adduced. It is said to be from the church in
which Chopin was christened: "I, the above, have performed the
ceremony of baptizing in water a boy with the double name Frederic
Francois, on the 22d day of February, son of the musicians Nicolai
Choppen, a Frenchman, and Justina de Krzyzanowska his legal spouse.
God- parents: the musicians Franciscus Grembeki and Donna Anna
Skarbekowa, Countess of Zelazowa-Wola." The wrong date was
chiselled upon the monument unveiled October 14, 1894, at Chopin's
birthplace--erected practically through the efforts of Milia Balakireff
the Russian composer. Janotha, whose father founded the Warsaw
Conservatory, informed Finck that the later date has also been put on
other monuments in Poland.
Now Chopin's father was not a musician, neither was his mother. I
cannot trace Grembeki, but we know that the Countess Skarbek, mother
of Chopin's namesake, was not a musician; however, the title
"musician" in the baptismal certificate may have signified something
eulogistic at that time. Besides, the Polish clergy was not a particularly
accurate class. But Janotha has more testimony: in her controversy with
me in 1896 she quoted Father Bielawski, the present cure of Brochow
parish church of Zelazowa- Wola; this reverend person consulted
records and gave as his opinion that 1810 is authentic. Nevertheless,
the biography of Wojcicki and the statement of the Chopin family
contradict him. And so the case stands. Janotha continues firm in her
belief although authorities do not justify her position.
All this petty pother arose since Niecks' comprehensive biography

appeared. So sure was he of his facts that he disposed of the
pseudo-date in one footnote. Perhaps the composer was to blame;
artists, male as well as female, have been known to make themselves
younger in years by conveniently forgetting their birthdate, or by
attributing the error to carelessness in the registry of dates. Surely the
Chopin family could not have been mistaken in such an important
matter! Regarding Chopin's ancestry there is still a moiety of doubt. His
father was born August 17, 1770--the same year as Beethoven--at
Nancy, Lorraine. Some claim that he had Polish blood in his veins.
Szulc claims that he was the natural son of a Polish nobleman, who
followed King Stanislas Leszcinski to Lorraine, dropping the Szopen,
or Szop, for the more Gallic Chopin. When Frederic went to Paris, he
in turn changed the name from Szopen to Chopin, which is common in
France.
Chopin's father emigrated to Warsaw in 1787--enticed by the offer of a
compatriot there in the tobacco business--and was the traditional
Frenchman of his time, well-bred, agreeable and more than usually
cultivated.
He joined the national guard during the Kosciuszko revolution in 1794.
When business stagnated he was forced to teach in the family of the
Leszynskis; Mary of that name, one of his pupils, being beloved by
Napoleon I. became the mother of Count Walewski, a minister of the
second French empire. Drifting to Zelazowa- Wola, Nicholas Chopin
lived in the house of the Countess Skarbek, acting as tutor to her son,
Frederic. There he made the acquaintance of Justina Krzyzanowska,
born of "poor but noble parents." He married her in 1806 and she bore
him four children: three girls, and the boy Frederic Francois.
With a refined, scholarly French father, Polish in political sentiments,
and an admirable Polish mother, patriotic to the extreme, Frederic grew
to be an intelligent, vivacious, home- loving lad. Never a hearty boy
but never very delicate, he seemed to escape most of the disagreeable
ills of childhood. The moonstruck, pale, sentimental calf of many
biographers, he never was. Strong evidence exists that he was merry,
pleasure-loving and fond of practical jokes. While his father was never
rich, the family after the removal to Warsaw lived at ease. The country
was prosperous and Chopin the elder became a professor in the Warsaw
Lyceum. His children were brought up in an atmosphere of charming

simplicity, love and refinement. The mother was an ideal mother, and,
as George Sand declared, Chopin's "only love." But, as we shall
discover later, Lelia was ever jealous--jealous even of Chopin's past.
His sisters were gifted, gentle and disposed to pet him. Niecks has
killed all the pretty fairy tales of his poverty and suffering.
Strong common sense ruled the actions of Chopin's parents, and when
his love for music revealed itself at an early age they engaged a teacher
named Adalbert Zwyny, a Bohemian who played the violin and taught
piano. Julius Fontana, one of the first friends of the boy--he committed
suicide in Paris, December 31, 1869,-- says that at the age of twelve
Chopin knew so