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Synopsis
Fryderyk Chopin's career is intricately entwined with the piano. Although he made forays into orchestral and chamber work, the vast majority of Chopin's pieces feature the piano. While his relatively brief life shortened his potential contribution as a composer, the originality, richness, and quality of his work is undeniable. His harmonies were often surprising, the rhythms flexible, and the music dramatic.
In Experiencing Chopin: A Listener's Companion, Christine Lee Gengaro surveys Chopin's position as a composer at a time when the piano stood at the center of musical and social life. Throughout, she shines a spotlight on Chopin and his music, which illuminated the Romantic period in which he lived, the social and artistic climate that surrounded him, and the importance of the individual artist at a time of political foment. Gengaro considers the different genres among Chopin's works, linking each to the historical, social, and biographical issues that shaped them. New & Used
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What Reviewers Are Saying
Experiencing Chopin is one of the many volumes in "The Listener's Companion" series, edited by Gregg Akkerman. The present volume is meant to guide nonspecialists in a meaningful foray into the music of Frederic Chopin. Gengaro (Los Angeles City College), a historical musicologist, writes clearly and with considerable detail about Chopin's life, loves, family, and piano compositions along with the things and people who influenced him. Very readable and engaging, the story of Chopin's life and career unfolds in a gentle, flowing manner and gives even specialists a good refresher on this topic. Starting with an annotated time line, Gengaro intersperses discussion of specific piano works with details about Chopin's life and work, including his teaching, his pianos, his friends, his concertizing, and his ill health. This is not a directed listening experience book with printed musical snippets and an exhaustive discography but rather a guide that suggests music to listen to and to experience. Gengaro draws references from the past and gives considerable space to more current examples of Chopin's influence in films and video games.
Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; general readers. * CHOICE * The great pianist Arthur Rubinstein wrote that 'Chopin was a genius of universal appeal.' The popularity of his music - long beloved of pianists and the concert-going public - endures unabated to this day. It has proven its value time and again, impervious to criticism and the tides of fashion. Chopin has also secured an enduring foothold in popular culture and film that is rare among composers. In her account of Chopin's turbulent life and times, Christine Lee Gengaro describes the extraordinary extent of his influence. She tells us about the composer's friends and associates, the political climate of his times, the pianos he played, his teaching, his personal life, his ever-fragile health, and the repertoire of masterpieces he bequeathed to us all. Gengaro's writing is engaging and suitable for readers of all levels of knowledge and musical experience. -- Matthew Bengtson, pianist and assistant professor, University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance Christine Lee Gengaro peels back the layers of Chopin's life and music, offering fresh insights into his creative approach to teaching piano, his love affair with headstrong novelist George Sand, his famous friends like Schumann and Liszt, his fondness for his native Poland, and his habit of deliberating over every note he left to posterity. This is essential reading for any Chopin enthusiast. -- Lincoln Ballard, author of The Alexander Scriabin Companion
Summing Up: Recommended.