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 solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leadin ...

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 Kiev 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 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. Biogra ...

of a Lithuanian song. 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 in Bohatyrka, Kiev guberniya – 31 March 1886 in Villepreux, near Paris) was a Polish Romantic poet. A friend of Adam Mickiewicz, Zaleski founded the " Ukrainian poetic school." Life Zaleski was a m ...

. Two were by

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. A principal figure in Polish Ro ...

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

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

, the lover of Delfina Potocka, 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 with

Vladimir Ashkenazy Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy (russian: Влади́мир Дави́дович Ашкена́зи, ''Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazi''; born 6 July 1937) is an internationally recognized solo pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor. He ...

Music Web International
/ref> * Leyla Gencer with

Nikita Magaloff Nikita Magaloff (russian: Никита Магалов; 26 December 1992) was a 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. ...

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 Romu ...

with Janusz Olejniczak *

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 Moni ...

with Halina Czerny-Stefańska * Eugenia Zareska with Giorgio Favaretto *

Stefania Woytowicz Stefania Woytowicz (8 October 1922, Orynyn, Kamianets-Podilskyi Raion – 31 August 2005, Warsaw) was a Polish concert soprano. Woytowicz was the soprano soloist in the first public performance of Henryk Górecki Henryk Mikołaj Górecki ( , ...

and Andrzej Bachleda with Wanda Klimowicz * Françoise Ogéas with Eva Osinska * Maria Kurenko with Robert Hufstader * Urszula Kryger with Charles Spencer. * H Januszewska with M Drewnowski * Joanna Kozłowska 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 fa ...

with Malcolm Martineau (1999) *

Ewa Podleś Ewa Podleś (; born April 26, 1952) is a Polish coloratura contralto singer who has had an active international career both on the opera stage and in recital. She is known for the agility of her voice and a vocal range which spans more than three ...

with Garrick Ohlsson *

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 ( pl, Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina) 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 ...

) * 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, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

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

*
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