youths had waited for the moment; but Chopin
was the first on the summit of the wall, behind which lay a cowardly
renaissance, a dwarfish Philistinism, asleep. Blows were dealt right
and left, and the Philistines awoke angrily, crying out, 'Look at the
impudent one!' while others behind the besieger cried, 'The one of noble
courage.'

"Besides this, and the favorable influence of period and condition, fate
rendered Chopin still more individual and interesting in endowing him
with an original pronounced nationality; Polish, too, and because this
nationality wanders in mourning robes in the thoughtful artist, it
deeply attracts us. It was well for him that neutral Germany did not
receive him too warmly at first, and that his genius led him straight
to one of the great capitals of the world, where he could freely poetize
and grow angry. If the powerful autocrat of the North knew what a
dangerous enemy threatens him in Chopin's works in the simple melodies
of his mazurkas, he would forbid music. Chopin's works are cannons
buried in flowers.... He is the boldest, proudest poet soul of to-day."

But Schumann could have said something more than this, and added that
Chopin was a musician of exceptional attainments, a virtuoso of the very
highest order, a writer for the piano pure and simple preeminent beyond
example, and a master of a unique and perfect style.

Chopin was born of mixed French and Polish parentage, February 8,
1810, at Zelazowa-Wola, near Warsaw. He was educated at the Warsaw
Conservatory, and his eminent genius for the piano shone at this time
most unmistakably. He found in the piano-forte an exclusive organ for
the expression of his thoughts. In the presence of this confidential
companion he forgot his shyness and poured forth his whole soul.
A passionate lover of his native country, and burning with those
aspirations for freedom which have made Poland since its first partition
a volcano ever ready to break forth, the folk-themes of Poland are
at the root of all of Chopin's compositions, and in the waltzes and
mazurkas bearing his name we find a passionate glow and richness of
color which make them musical poems of the highest order.

Chopin's art position, both as a pianist and composer, was a unique one.
He was accustomed to say that the breath of the concert-room stifled
him, whereas Liszt, his intimate friend and fellow-artist, delighted in
it as a war-horse delights in the tumult of battle. Chopin alw