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FREDERICK CHOPIN and the Paris Violets

Frederick Chopin

George Sand

             Biographers have a hard time with the composer Chopin. His life is full of many contradictions. He did not tend to share much of himself with anyone or keep any extensive journals. Most of his letters have been lost. The best way to get to know him is through his music. George Sand, the female novelist who was perhaps the person who knew him best and possibly the only person who ever understood him, said that she would listen to him play the piano and from that, she could tell what he was thinking, what he was feeling.

Violets of Chopin's Time

             After a nasty split with George Sand, Chopin toured England with Jane Sterling, his piano student. The damp weather and rigorous schedule further weakened his health (he suffered from tuberculosis and never did well after the split). When he returned to Paris, he was near death. His friends tried to make his final days as comfortable as possible by helping with expenses and making regular visits. When he died, Jane Sterling bought all the violets she could find in the flower shops of Paris to cover his grave.1 The feelings that he could only express in music still touch the hearts and emotions of his listeners. So beloved is Chopin that, even today visitors daily place flowers (frequently violets) on this grave in Paris.