But it is not, as LaFarge discovered, the piece of music we think we know. Each of these threads – musical, political, social, personal – is woven through the Funeral March, a melody so famous it’s known around the world even to people who know nothing about classical music. In Chasing Chopin she follows in his footsteps during the three years, 1837-1840, when he composed the now-famous funeral march from his Opus 35 sonata, using its composition story to illuminate the key themes of Chopin’s life: a deep attachment to his Polish homeland his complex relationship with writer George Sand their harrowing but consequential sojourn on the Balearic island of Majorca the rapidly developing technology of the piano, which enabled his unique tone and voice social and political revolution in 1830s Paris friendship with other artists, from the famous Eugène Delacroix to the lesser known, yet notorious in his time, Marquis de Custine. The artist she discovered is, instead, an inspiring, independent spirit: an innovator who created a new musical language an autodidact who became a trailblazing teacher a celebrity who shunned the limelight a mimic with a roguish, playful sense of humor a stalwart patriot during a time of revolution, exile and pandemic. The Frédéric Chopin Annik LaFarge presents here is not the melancholy, sickly, Romantic figure so often portrayed in both popular culture and scholarship. “ website raises the bar on how music-themed books will be expected to incorporate multimedia henceforth.” - Chronogram MagazineĪ modern take on a classical icon: this original, entertaining, well-researched book uses the story of when, where, and how Chopin composed his most famous work, uncovering many surprises along the way and showing how his innovative music still animates popular and art culture centuries later. Longlisted for the PEN America Award for Biography
A New York Times Book Review “Editors’ Choice”
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