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Show STORY OP CHOPIN'S ' l!lf",. GREAT FUNERAL MARCH ZZV p depres- The fact that Frederic Chopin, though not born in France, first saw the light in the year 1805) gives Franco ilie opnort unily to lake her part in the sones of centenary celebrations of the births of famous men this year, savs a Paris letter lo t ho Chicago News. Though born of a Polish mother, Chopin's Chop-in's lather was French, and he himself was entirely French by temperament, lliougli his "pal Holism was aroused by Poland 's sull'erings, and by them alone. For France's political adventures lie had neither interest nor aii3 desire lo lake sides. Yet Chopin was essentially French not only in a great deal of his music, but in his best and his worst finalities. Fiance iias a right to claim him. , Chopin in Paris. The Paris footprints of Frederic arc fairly distinct even today. There arc several distinguished people still living liv-ing here who were among lho few intimate in-timate friends of the poet-composer. What history, lias not left to ns, in more or less clear shape, these friends can supply. Though no tablet thus far adorns any of the various houses in which tho composer lived, all musicians know these: and they know, too, the grand Pleyel piano at which he composed com-posed so many of his w-orks and which may be. seen at any time in the Pleyel exhibition room. I havo .just had a look at it. It is small in length, but has eight octaves, which is more 'than many modern grands possess. The pedals ped-als are worn by the slippered feet of the invalid player and a silver placque, with inscriptions, hands it down to musical history. Those who love lo follow these footprints foot-prints of one of the most exquisite musicians that Europe has produced may go when they please to the studio of the hospitnble Ziem. the painter of Venice, who still, at much over SO, occupies oc-cupies his old home Up on the Butte Montnmrtro and who, if ..you let hiin first talk a while about himself and the 5000 canvases he has painted, will at last turn his memory back to the time when the thin, round-shouldered, yet tall, Chopin came every few evenings to visit and chat about common interests. inter-ests. Many gay parties were hold in this studio. It was here that, as cv cry musician has read, Chopin often exhibited ex-hibited his talent for caricature and several times dressed up in imitation of Wagner or Liszt, and so skillfully thai he often imposed on close friends of these comrades. It was also here that, according to Zicin, the illustrious Chopin funeral march was. if not; composed, com-posed, at least sketched 'out during an improvisation at the iiano. J3ut, to let Zicm talk: ' ' Yes, it was on that piano over there in the corner, now covered with the dust of years, monsieur, (hat Chopin first played his 'Mnrehe Eunebre. ' I recall the evening well. 'Twas raining, i hardly expected any one, though 1 remember the wine and cakes had been laid out as usual. It was Frederick himself him-self who first arrived. He wore a long, black clqak a la Thaddeiis of Warsaw (by which name, indeed, we used to call him) and seemed depressed, though he declaied it was but the weather that disturbed him. Soon Heller. Liszt and a few others whom I now forget, dropped in and music became, as usual, the order of tlie evening. 1 remember Chopin indignantly, peevishly asserted that Schumann's music was not music at all and t lint later on he indulged in his favorite amusement of 'drawing caricatures.' car-icatures.' upon the piano, of different friends of his. One of these would lean against the piano that same piano over there and Frederic would stare dreamily dream-ily into his face. After a moment he would begin to play and soon he would feci thai he had indeed divined the inner, in-ner, real, dominant personality of the friend before him. Most of the friends took this good-naturedly. However. I recall the once Wagner, who had been made somewhat grotesque by the astute caricaturist. got mad and cried: 'Enough! Enough! Music should not thus be debased! ' Was Moody Just Then. "We partook of burgundy and small cakes, and then some one asked Chopin to phi one of his famous compositions. Chopin apparently acquiesced, but the moment he was sealed at the instrument instru-ment he began, with the left hand alone, the B-flnt minor chords That begin this now well-known funeral march. His depression of spirit had evidently not yet disappeared. Tn a few moments the right hand took up a kind of inversion, or whatever i musicians may call it, of the same chord, and thereupon the great composition enme into being for the first lime. Chopin may have chased and jolishcd it up; lie was a great one for that as bad as we painter-fellows, but so much better. There has been a great deal of controversy and a great deal of ink spilled over the original of this inarch which Chopin afterwards inserted as one of the movements move-ments of -his B-flnt minor sonata; but there over there is the piano at which it was first sketched, and 1 have here letters from Chopin which abundantly abun-dantly prove it. ' ' . Says Tale Is True. walked over to tho piano. As M. Ziem had said, it was covered with dust so thickly that one might have engraved en-graved Chopin's name in letters an inch thick. And so it was upon those yellow keys that the somber octaves in B-llat minor had first sounded as part of that ghostly march in which Franz Lis.t said that "the rustling of funeral fu-neral plumes might be distinctly heard.' ' And upon this mahogany frame that Heller and Lis.t himself had leaned for their "caricatures!" There is no reason to doubt Zieni's story. The instrument bears the date of lSIIu. and, moreover, vivacious little Mine. Ziem is- there lo corroborate her husband's story. "I was not Ihen here myself, monsieur," mon-sieur," she said; "but 1 have known several who were and who spoke of that wonderful improvisation ami of how tho company broke up sadly, but when once upon the street dragged Chopin to a cafe and there sat up till all hours, drinking beer, until Lis.t got hilarious and had to be laken lo bed. since he had a concert the next day.. Ah. 'twas a gay life in those days, monsieur! Musicians Mu-sicians and painters were not business men, as they arc today, but all artists, and an arisUtcrac3 quite apart." Mmc. Solangc Knew Him. Another Chopin souvenir, also unpub- iisiicu so inr as i Know, occurs to me. Some ten .years ago, when a new street was being put through an historic part of the city near the-Grands boulevards, people learned with surprise that one of the persons who had lo abandon their homes to the pick of the deinolisher, was no other than Mmc. .Solange. the (laughter of Georges Sand, arrived at more than three score and tea, if t remember re-member rightly, and certainly looking so. Her husband, long since ' deceased, the husband that Chopin did not want her to marry and about whom ho quai-clod quai-clod with Mine. Dudevant, and most of her other relatives also gone, this poor old lady was simp)- literally waiting wait-ing for death. With this present, generation gen-eration she had nothing whatever to do; there was no place in it for her. fjhc had a small fortune, which yieldod for her about .-?lu0 a month considerable for her wants; And she received no friends because they were all dead Vet the writer was admitted when he climbed her stairs to ask about Chopin. "Oh. yes!" she said delightfully. "I always like lo talk about Uncle Frederic, Fred-eric, ns wc often called him, myself and my brother. He called mc f'Soli! and was. always gentle and kind, even when he was suffering. 1 think he suffered suf-fered more mentally or nervously than bodily. Siriall things jarred him and my mother used to say that if a poplar tree had more leaves on one side of it than on the oilier he couldn't eat. his brcakf:lst near it. He loved symmetry, even if his music might have indicated a freer. Jess-formal spirit." |