Although

Frédéric Chopin Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period who wrote primarily for Piano solo, solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown ...

is best known for his works for piano solo, among his extant output are 19 songs for voice and piano, set to Polish texts.

Background

Chopin wrote these songs at various times, from perhaps as early as 1827 when he was 17, to 1847, two years before his death. Only two of them were published in his lifetime (''Życzenie'' and ''Wojak'' were published in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

in 1837 and 1839 respectively).Kornel Michałowski and Jim Samson.
Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek
. ''Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online''. Retrieved 7 January 2011. In 1857 the 17 then known songs were collected for publication by

Julian Fontana Julian (or Jules) Fontana (31 July 1810 — 23 December 1869) was a Polish pianist, composer, lawyer, author, translator, and entrepreneur, best remembered as a close friend and musical executor of Polish people, Polish composer Frédéric Chopin ...

as Op. 74, but they were not arranged in chronological order of composition within that opus. Due to censorship restrictions, he was only able to publish 16 of them initially. These appeared in Warsaw as ''Zbiór śpiewów polskich Fryderyka Chopina'' (''A Collection of Polish Songs by Frédéric Chopin''), published by Gebethner & Wolff; and in Berlin as ''16 Polnische Lieder'', published by A M Schlesinger. The 17th song, ''Śpiew z mogiłki'' (''Hymn from the Tomb'') was published separately in Berlin with a French title, ''Chant du tombeau''.Hyperion
/ref> A further two songs were published in 1910. Some references now include all 19 published songs in Op. 74. Chopin is known to have written a number of other songs that are now lost. Some extant songs have been attributed to Chopin but are now considered spurious or doubtful.

Texts

All but one of the texts of the Chopin songs were original poems by his Polish contemporaries, with most of whom he was personally acquainted. The sole exception is ''Piosnka litewska'' (A Lithuanian Song), which was set to a Polish translation by

Ludwik Osiński Ludwik Osiński (24 August 1775, Kock - 27 November 1838, Warsaw) was a Polish literary critic, historian, literary theorist, translator, poet, playwright and speaker, who also served as a minister in the government of Congress Poland. Biograp ...

. Ten of them are by a friend of Chopin’s family,

Stefan Witwicki Stefan Witwicki (September 13, 1801April 15, 1847) was a Polish poet of the Romantic period. Life From 1822 Witwicki worked in the Congress Poland's Government Commission on Religions and Education (''Komisja Rządowa Wyznań i Oświaty''). In ...

, from his ''Piosnki Sielskie'' (''Idylls'', 1830). (Chopin also dedicated his Mazurkas, Op. 41, to Witwicki.) Three were by

Józef Bohdan Zaleski Józef Bohdan Zaleski (14 February 1802 – 31 March 1886) was a Polish Romanticism, Polish Romantic poet. A friend of Adam Mickiewicz, Zaleski founded the Ukrainian school, Ukrainian poetic school. Life Zaleski was a member of the secret patri ...

. Two were by a friend of Chopin’s named

Adam Mickiewicz Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. He also largely influenced Ukra ...

Wincenty Pol Wincenty Pol (; 20 April 1807 – 2 December 1872) was a Polish poet and geographer. Life Pol was born in Lublin (then in Galicia), to Franz Pohl (or Poll), a German in the Austrian service, and his wife Eleonora Longchamps de Berier, from a ...

's revolutionary ''Songs of Janusz'' (1836) inspired Chopin to write up to a dozen songs, but only one survives.

Zygmunt Krasiński Count Napoleon Stanisław Adam Feliks Zygmunt Krasiński (; 19 February 1812 – 23 February 1859) was a Polish poet traditionally ranked after Adam Mickiewicz and Juliusz Słowacki as one of Poland's Three Bards – the Romantic poets who ...

, the lover of

Delfina Potocka Delfina Potocka, ''née'' Komar (March 18072 April 1877), a Polish countess, was a friend and muse to Polish expatriate artists Frédéric Chopin and Zygmunt Krasiński.''Encyklopedia Polski''. ''Encyklopedia powszechna PWN''. She was noted ...

, was another poet who inspired Chopin to write a song. The songs have been translated into over a dozen languages. Various English titles have been applied to some of the songs.

Recordings

Those who have recorded the 17 songs of Op. 74, or all 19 known songs, include: *

Elisabeth Söderström Anna Elisabeth Söderström (married name Olow; 7 May 192720 November 2009) was a Swedish soprano who performed both opera and song, and was known as a leading interpreter of the works of Janáček, Rachmaninoff and Sibelius.Elizabeth Sleeman, ' ...

with

Vladimir Ashkenazy Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy (, ''Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazi''; born 6 July 1937) is a Soviet-born Icelandic pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor. Ashkenazy has collaborated with well-known orchestras and soloists. In addition, ...

Music Web International
/ref> *

Leyla Gencer Leyla Gencer (, née Çeyrekgil; 10 October 192810 May 2008) also known as La Diva Turca was a Turkish operatic soprano. Gencer was a notable '' bel canto'' soprano who spent most of her career in Italy, from the early 1950s through the mid-1980 ...

with

Nikita Magaloff Nikita Magaloff (; 26 December 1992) was a Georgia (country), Georgian-Russian pianist. He was born in Saint Petersburg to a Georgian noble family named Maghalashvili. Magaloff and his family left Russia in 1918 for Finland. His musical interes ...

Stefania Toczyska Stefania Toczyska (née Krzywińska), born in Grudziądz, Poland, on 19 February 1943, is a Polish mezzo-soprano of international repute. She lived in Toruń, where she attended the Music School ("little conservatory"). There, she married Romual ...

with

Janusz Olejniczak Janusz Olejniczak (; 2 October 1952 – 20 October 2024) was a Polish classical pianist, academic teacher and actor. He made an international career as a pianist, especially with the piano music of Chopin which he played on modern and period i ...

Teresa Żylis-Gara Teresa Żylis-Gara (23 January 1930 – 28 August 2021) was a Polish operatic soprano who enjoyed a major international career from the 1950s through the 1990s. She made her stage debut at the Opera Krakowska in 1958 in the title role of Moniu ...

with

Halina Czerny-Stefańska Halina Czerny-Stefańska ( �xaˈlina t͡ʂɛrnɨ stɛˈfaj᷉ska31 December 19221 July 2001) was a Polish pianist. Life She studied piano under her father, Stanisław Szwarcenberg-Czerny, as well as with Alfred Cortot at the École Normale de ...

* Eugenia Zareska with Giorgio Favaretto * Stefania Woytowicz and Andrzej Bachleda with Wanda Klimowicz * Françoise Ogéas with Eva Osinska *

Maria Kurenko Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial *170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, da ...

with Robert Hufstader * Urszula Kryger with Charles Spencer. * H Januszewska with M Drewnowski *

Joanna Kozłowska Joanna Kozłowska-Szczepaniak (born 1959 in Poznań) is a Polish opera singer (soprano). Life and career Kozłowska went to Poznań School of Music which is named after the Polish composer Mieczysław Karłowicz where she studied cello and piano. ...

with Waldemar Malicki, CDAccord ACD051 (1999) *

Elżbieta Szmytka Elżbieta Szmytka (born 1956) is a Polish operatic soprano. She has appeared internationally, including at the Vienna State Opera, where she performed Mozart roles such as Blonde in ''Die Entführung aus dem Serail'' and Despina in ''Così fan t ...

with

Malcolm Martineau Malcolm Martineau, OBE (born 3 February 1960) is a Scottish pianist who is particularly noted as an accompanist. Life Martineau was born to the pianist Hester Dickson Martineau and Canon George Martineau in 1960. He was an only child but he had ...

(1999) *

Ewa Podleś Ewa Maria Podleś (; 26 April 1952 – 19 January 2024) was a Polish coloratura contralto singer who had an active international career both on the opera stage and in recital. She was known for the agility of her voice and a vocal range which s ...

with

Garrick Ohlsson Garrick Olaf Ohlsson (born April 3, 1948) is an American classical pianist. In 1970 Ohlsson became the first, and remains the only, competitor from the United States to win the gold medal awarded by the International Chopin Piano Competition, at ...

Aleksandra Kurzak Aleksandra Kurzak (Polish pronunciation: ; born 7 August 1977) is a Polish operatic soprano who has an international career primarily in Europe and the United States. In her earlier career she was a specialist in lyric and coloratura soprano role ...

, soprano, and

Mariusz Kwiecień Mariusz Kwiecień (, born 4 November 1972) is a Polish artistic director and retired operatic baritone who sang leading roles in the major opera houses of Europe and North America. He received particular distinction in the title role of Mozart's ...

, baritone, accompanied b
Nelson Goerner
(all 19 songs, recorded in Warsaw in 2009 and issued by the

Fryderyk Chopin Institute The Fryderyk Chopin Institute () is a Polish organization dedicated to researching and promoting the life and works of Polish composer Frédéric Chopin. It was created in 2001 as the result of legislation in the Polish Parliament and is under d ...

) * Olga Pasichnyk with Natalya Pasichnyk (2009) * Mario Hacquard, baritone and Anna Zassimova, piano (French version by Victor Wilder - Recorded in Karlsruhe with a piano by Sebastien Erard - 2017)
Chopin Lieder Op. 74
produced b
Elegia Classics
2018 with Dominika Zamara sopran and Franco Moro piano Other singers have recorded selected songs.

Arrangements

Chopin himself arranged the piano part of ''Wiosna'' as a piece for piano alone, ''Andantino'' in G minor, B. 117. There exist five manuscript versions of this arrangement, dated between April 1838 and 1 September 1848. Between 1847 and 1860, Chopin's friend

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

arranged six of the Op. 74 songs as piano transcriptions under the title ''Six Chants polonais'', S.480, a set which has long been a concert and recording favourite. The six are: * 1. ''Mädchens Wunsch'' (No. 1: ''Życzenie'' – The Wish) * 2. ''Frühling'' (No. 2: ''Wiosna'' – Spring) * 3. ''Das Ringlein'' (No. 14: ''Pierścień'' – The Ring), which leads without a break into ... * 4. ''Bacchanal'' (No. 4: ''Hulanka'' – Merrymaking) * 5. ''Meine Freuden'' (No. 12: ''Moja pieszczotka'' – My Darling) * 6. ''Heimkehr'' (No. 15: ''Narzeczony'' – The Bridegroom). In this arrangement, ''Das Ringlein'' leads without a break into ''Bacchanal'', and towards the end of the latter song, immediately before the coda, Liszt includes a short 6-bar reprise of the earlier song.

List of Polish songs by Chopin

References

External links

Manuscript of Op. 74
at the

Austrian National Library The Austrian National Library (, ) is the largest library in Austria, with more than 12 million items in its various collections. The library is located in the Hofburg#Neue Burg, Neue Burg Wing of the Hofburg in Innere Stadt, center of Vienna. Sin ...

*
The Spirit of Poland
in Jim Samson: The Music of Chopin, pp 100, Oxford University Press 1985 * {{Authority control Art songs Chopin Compositions by Frédéric Chopin published posthumously