Romantic era

•    Chopin was born in Poland to a French father and a Polish mother who were both musicians.

•    He started playing that piano at the age of 8 and after only 1 year of lessons he gave his first concert

•    He composed his first pieces of music in Poland but was then forced to move to France due to unrest in his country.

•    His music was influenced by Polish folk music and Johann Sebastian Bach

•    His music had a ‘singing’ style to it, called Cantabile with beautiful haunting melodies.

•    He was known for his expressive piano playing and was often completely exhausted and bed-ridden after he gave a concert.

•    Chopin liked to play the piano in the dark – he always turned all lights off to play both at home and during performances.

•    He was very shy and didn’t like performing to lots of people. He only gave 30 concerts in his lifetime. Five of these were in Britain

• one of Ms Teagle’s favourite composers!

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