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One Needs Only To Study A Certain Positioning Of The Hand In Relation To The Keys To Obtain With Ease The Most Beautiful Sounds, To Know How To Play Long Notes And Short Notes And To Achieve Certain Unlimited Dexterity. A Well Formed Technique, It Seems To Me, Can Control And Vary A Beautiful Sound Quality.

-Frederic Chopin

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One Needs Only To

Frederic Chopin

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One Needs Only To Study A Certain Positioning Of The Hand In Relation To The Keys To Obtain With Ease The Most Beautiful Sounds, To Know How To Play Long Notes And Short Notes And To Achieve Certain Unlimited Dexterity. A Well Formed Technique, It Seems To Me, Can Control And Vary A Beautiful Sound Quality.

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As Something Has Involuntarily Crept Into My Head Through My Eyes,i Love To Indulge It, Even Though It May Be All Wrong.

Through My Eyes

I Feel Like A Novice, Just As I Felt Before I Knew Anything Of The Keyboard. It Is Far Too Original, And I Shall End Up Not Being Able To Learn It Myself.

Nothing Is More Beautiful Than A Guitar, Except, Possibly Two.

If The Newspapers Cut Me Up So Much That I Shall Not Venture Before The World Again, I Have Resolved To Become A House Painter; That Would Be As Easy As Anything Else, And I Should, At Any Rate, Still Be An Artist!

I Could Express My Feelings More Easily If They Could Be Put Into The Notes Of Music, But As The Very Best Concert Would Not Cover My Affection For You, Dear Daddy, I Must Use The Simple Words Of My Heart, To Lay Before You My Utmost Gratitude And Filial Affection

As Long As I Have Health And Strength, I Will Gladly Work All My Days.

Health And Strength

I Don't Know How It Is, But The Germans Are Amazed At Me And I Am Amazed At Them For Finding Anything To Be Amazed About.

England Is A Country Of Pianos, They Are Everywhere.

It Is Dreadful When Something Weighs On Your Mind, Not To Have A Soul To Unburden Yourself To. You Know What I Mean. I Tell My Piano The Things I Used To Tell You.

All The Same It Is Being Said Everywhere That I Played Too Softly, Or Rather, Too Delicately For People Used To The Piano-pounding Of The Artists Here.

I Wish I Could Throw Off The Thoughts Which Poison My Happiness, But I Take A Kind Of Pleasure In Indulging Them.

We Fell Silent And All Joking Ceased. We Gazed Mutely Into Each Other's Eyes And An Intense Longing For The Fullest Avowal Of The Truth Forced Us To A Confession, Requiring No Words Whatever, Or The Incommensurable Misfortune That Weighed Upon Us. With Tears And Sobs We Sealed A Vow To Belong To Each Other Alone.

Time Is The Best Of Critics; And Patience The Best Of Teachers.

You Already Know When I'm Writing, So Don't Be Surprised If It's Short And Dry, Because I'm Too Hungry To Write Anything Fat

Nothing Is More Odious Than Music Without Hidden Meaning.

Bach Is Like An Astronomer Who, With The Help Of Ciphers, Finds The Most Wonderful Stars.

Yesterday's Concert Was A Success. I Hasten To Let You Know. I Inform Your Lordship That I Was Not A Bit Nervous And Played As I Play When I Am Alone. It Went Well... And I Had To Come Back And Bow Four Times.

Having Nothing To Do, I Am Correcting The Paris Edition Of Bach; Not Only The Engraver's Mistakes, But Also The Mistakes Hallowed By Those Who Are Supposed To Understand Bach (i Have No Pretensions To Understand Better, But I Do Think That Sometimes I Can Guess).

Simplicity Is The Final Achievement.

I Don't Know Where There Can Be So Many Pianists As In Paris, So Many Asses And So Many Virtuosi.

Bach Is Like An Astronomer Who, With The Help Of Ciphers, Finds The Most Wonderful Stars . . . Beethoven Embraced The Universe With The Power Of His Spirit . . . I Do Not Climb So High. A Long Time Ago I Decided That My Universe Will Be The Soul And Heart Of Man.

I Have Met A Great Celebrity, Madame Dudevant, Known As George Sand... Her Appearance Is Not To My Liking. Indeed There Is Something About Her Which Positively Repels Me... What An Unattractive Person La Sand Is... Is She Really A Woman? I'm Inclined To Doubt It.

Even In Winter It Shall Be Green In My Heart.

I Really Don't Know Whether Any Place Contains More Pianists Than Paris, Or Whether You Can Find More Asses And Virtuosos Anywhere.

Mozart Encompasses The Entire Domain Of Musical Creation, But I've Got Only The Keyboard In My Poor Head.

There Are Certain Times When I Feel More Inspired, Filled With A Strong Power That Forces Me To Listen To My Inner Voice, And When I Feel More Need Than Ever For A Pleyel Piano.

A Strange Adventure Befell Me While I Was Playing My Sonata In B Flat Minor Before Some English Friends. I Had Played The Allegro And The Scherzo More Or Less Correctly. I Was About To Attack The March When Suddenly I Saw Arising From The Body Of My Piano Those Cursed Creatures Which Had Appeared To Me One Lugubrious Night At The Chartreuse. I Had To Leave For One Instant To Pull Myself Together After Which I Continued Without Saying Anything.

When One Does A Thing, It Appears Good, Otherwise One Would Not Write It. Only Later Comes Reflection, And One Discards Or Accepts The Thing. Time Is The Best Censor, And Patience A Most Excellent Teacher.

My Manuscripts Sleep, While I Cannot, For I Am Covered With Poultices.

Here, Waltzes Are Called Works! And Strauss And Lanner, Who Play Them For Dancing, Are Called Kapellmeistern. This Does Not Mean That Everyone Thinks Like That; Indeed, Nearly Everyone Laughs About It; But Only Waltzes Get Printed.

A Long Time Ago I Decided That My Universe Will Be The Soul And Heart Of Man.

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Oh, How Hard It Must Be To Die Anywhere But In Ones Birthplace.

I Am Not Fitted To Give Concerts. The Audience Intimidates Me, I Feel Choked By Its Breath, Paralyzed By Its Curious Glances, Struck Dumb By All Those Strange Faces.

Liszt Commenting On The Music Of Frédéric Chopin: He Confided . . . Those Inexpressible Sorrows To Which The Pious Give Vent In Their Communication With Their Maker. What They Never Say Except Upon Their Knees, He Said In His Palpitating Compositions.

The Official Bulletin Declared That The Poles Should Be As Proud Of Me As The Germans Are Of Mozart; Obvious Nonsense.

It's A Huge Carthusian Monastery, Stuck Down Between Rocks And Sea, Where You May Imagine Me, Without White Gloves Or Hair Curling, As Pale As Ever, In A Cell With Such Doors As Paris Never Had For Gates. The Cell Is The Shape Of A Tall Coffin, With An Enormous Dusty Vaulting, A Small Window... Bach, My Scrawls And Waste Paper - Silence - You Could Scream - There Would Still Be Silence. Indeed, I Write To You From A Strange Place.

Simplicity Is The Final Achievement. After One Has Played A Vast Quantity Of Notes And More Notes, It Is Simplicity That Emerges As The Crowning Reward Of Art.

I Am Gay On The Outside, Especially Among My Own Folk (i Count Poles My Own); But Inside Something Gnaws At Me; Some Presentiment, Anxiety, Dreams - Or Sleeplessness - Melancholy, Indifference - Desire For Life, And The Next Instant, Desire For Death; Some Kind Of Sweet Peace, Some Kind Of Numbness, Absent-mindedness.

Simplicity Is The Highest Goal, Achievable When You Have Overcome All Difficulties.

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Among The Numerous Pleasures Of Vienna The Hotel Evenings Are Famous. During Supper Strauss Or Lanner Play Waltzes...after Every Waltz They Get Huge Applause; And If They Play A Quodlibet, Or Jumble Of Opera, Song And Dance, The Hearers Are So Overjoyed That They Don't Know What To Do With Themselves. It Shows The Corrupt Taste Of The Viennese Public.

The Three Most Celebrated Doctors On The Island Have Been To See Me. One Sniffed At What I Spat, The Second Tapped Where I Spat From, And The Third Sounded Me And Listened As I Spat. The First Said I Was Dead, The Second That I Was Dying And The Third That I'm Going To Die.

To Be A Great Composer Requires Immense Experience... One Acquires This By Listening Not Only To Other Men's Work, But Above All To One's Own!

They Want Me To Give Another Concert But I Have No Desire To Do So. You Cannot Imagine What A Torture The Three Days Before A Public Appearance Are To Me.

Here, Whatever Is Not Boring Is Not English.

One Needs Only To Study A Certain Positioning Of The Hand In Relation To The Keys To Obtain With Ease The Most Beautiful Sounds, To Know How To Play Long Notes And Short Notes And To Achieve Certain Unlimited Dexterity. A Well Formed Technique, It Seems To Me, Can Control And Vary A Beautiful Sound Quality.

My Piano Has Not Yet Arrived. How Did You Send It? By Marseilles Or By Perpignan? I Dream Music But I Cannot Make Any Because Here There Are Not Any Pianos . . . In This Respect This Is A Savage Country.

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I'm A Revolutionary, Money Means Nothing To Me.

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After A Rest In Edinburgh, Where, Passing A Music-shop, I Heard Some Blind Man Playing A Mazurka Of Mine.

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I Haven't Heard Anything So Great For A Long Time; Beethoven Snaps His Fingers At The Whole World.

Concerts Are Never Real Music, You Have To Give Up The Idea Of Hearing In Them All The Most Beautiful Things Of Art.

Hats Off, Gentlemen - A Genius! If The Mighty Autocrat Of The North Knew What A Dangerous Enemy Threatened Him In Chopin's Works In The Simple Tunes Of His Mazurkas, He Would Forbid This Music. Chopin's Works Are Canons Buried In Flowers.

Every Difficulty Slurred Over Will Be A Ghost To Disturb Your Repose Later On.

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Sometimes I Can Only Groan, And Suffer, And Pour Out My Despair At The Piano.

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