CHRISTMAS AND CHOPIN Given the significance of Christmas as a joyful family celebration, we can assume that Chopins household in Warsaw also observed its traditional ritual: at Christmas Eve (Wigilia), when the first star rises, everyone at the table exchanges good wishes, breaking a consecrated wafer and planting hugs and kisses. Dinner follows: twelve courses, starting with soup; carp as the main and an assortments of cakes to finish. After the opening of the presents, Christmas carols are sung - with more singing at the Midnight Mass. One of the all time favourite still is the Lulajze Jezuniu (Sleep, little Jesus), which Chopin quoted in one of his masterpieces, the Scherzo No.1 in B minor,op.20. youtube/watch?v=QunzZjUMDE0 His first Christmas away from home Chopin spent in Vienna (1830). when his loneliness and disappointment at the lack of a musical success is reflected in his letter to his friend Jan Matuszynski: Christmas Day morning. This time last year I was at Bernardines (a former monastery in Warsaw turned into a music conservatoire of which Fryderyk was a pupil - MO). Today I am sitting alone in my dressing-gown, gnawing at my ring... In the same letter he describes his Christmas Eve visit to St Stephens Cathedral: I went in. There was still nobody about...I stood at the foot of a gothic pillar, in the darkest corner...It was quiet...Tombs behind me, tombs beneath me...I only needed a tomb over my head...A gloomy harmony haunted me...I felt more vividly than ever my complete isolation. Nostalgia and concern for his family in the outcome of the Polish defeat in the November Uprising against the Imperial Russia tormented Chopin during his second Christmas abroad - this time in Paris. To add to the gloom he had learned that Konstancja Gladkowska - my ideal - will get married in January. In his letter to Tytus Wojciechowski dated 25 December 1831, Fryderyk describes his feelings: You wouldnt believed how sad I am that I have no one to confine in...No ones tongue to wag with. The next record of Chopins activity around Christmas appeared in Gazette Musicale de Paris - a review of joined concert with Liszt in the salons of Francoise Stoepl on 25 December 1834. The following year the Journal des Debats informs its readers that Monsieur Chopin will improvise in an event for the benefit of the Polish refugees. Christmas Eve 1836 was a happier occasion.Chopin joined a small gathering of his émigré friends to celebrate Adam Mickiewiczs name day. The outstanding Chopin played, sang, improvised and everybody were so absorbed in his music and good fun that nobody noticed the light of the dawn that was illuminated for the past half an hour. Four years before his death, the gloomy mood was back in evidence. Today is Christmas Eve, Our Lady of the Star - wrote Fryderyk to his family in 1845. They dont know that here. As usual they eat dinner at 6, 7 or 8 pm....All the Protestant homes observe Christmas Eve, but the ordinary Parisian doesnt feel the difference between today and yesterday....Its sad Wigilia here...Sometimes for a few hours of sunshine I would give few years of my life. Article by Marek Ostas
Posted on: Mon, 16 Dec 2013 09:26:54 +0000
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