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Proposal by Francis Schonken (talk), 6th statement revision:

3rd and last subsection to be added to Frédéric Chopin#Early Life

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The text proposed below would replace the explanatory footnote "n 6":


====Passions====

Early October 1829 Chopin wrote to Woyciechowski:[1][2]

The "adagio" is the second movement (Larghetto) of his Piano Concerto Op. 21, and the "little waltz" is his Op. posth. 70, No. 3, in D-flat major.[3] Translators Arthur Hedley (1962) and David Frick (2016) assumed that the "ideal", unnamed in Chopin's letter, refers to a woman.[3][4] According to biographers Frederick Niecks (1888), Adam Zamoyski (1979, rev. 2010) and Alan Walker (2018) that woman was Konstancja Gładkowska.[5][6][7] According to Walker, the passage is "[t]he clearest indication we have of Chopin's infatuation with Konstancja."[7] In April 1830 Chopin wrote Woyciechowski that the new concerto he was composing (Op. 11) has no value until Woyciechowski has heard it and approved of it.[8] The summer of that year Chopin spent a few weeks with his friend on his estate in Poturzyn.[4] From a letter he wrote him after returning to Warsaw:[9][10]

According to Niecks, Chopin had two passions: his love for Gładkowska and his friendship for Woyciechowski, while he expressed his friendship for the latter sometimes in words a lover would use towards his beloved.[11] Zamoyski considered the quoted passage from the letter of 4 September consistent with how feelings were expressed in the Romantic era.[12] According to Walker, the passage is undeniably erotic, and Chopin transferred what he was feeling for Gładkowska to Woyciechowski.[13] Music critic Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim [d] saw hand-wringing in such explanations of this and other fervent letters Chopin wrote to his friend.[13][14] According to a 2020 radio broadcast by Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, the "ideal" which Chopin mentioned in his letter of 3 October 1829 was Woyciechowski himself, the object of the composer's affection for many years.[4][15][16][17]


Paragraph to be added between the 4th and 5th paragraphs of the "Reception and influence" section

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In this part of the proposal, the prose and section title of the "Sexuality" section are removed, and replaced by this text, placed as a new paragraph between the current 4th and 5th paragraphs of the "Reception and influence" section:


Musicologist Erinn Knyt writes: "In the nineteenth century Chopin and his music were commonly viewed as effeminate, androgynous, childish, sickly, and 'ethnically other.'"[18] The music historian Jeffrey Kallberg says that in Chopin's time, "listeners to the genre of the piano nocturne often couched their reactions in feminine imagery", and he cites many examples of such reactions to Chopin's nocturnes.[19] Such genderization was not commonly applied to other piano genres such as the scherzo or the polonaise.[20] "To be associated with the feminine was also often to be devalorized",[21] and such associations of Chopin's music with the "feminine" did not begin to shift until the twentieth century, when pianists such as Artur Rubinstein began to play these works in a less sentimental manner, away from "salon style", and when musical analysis of a more rigorous nature (such as that of Heinrich Schenker) began to assert itself.[22]


References and sources

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References

  1. ^ a b To Tytus Woyciechowski in Poturzyn (1829-10-03) at Fryderyk Chopin Institute website.
  2. ^ a b Voynich, Ethel (1931). Chopin's Letters. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, p. 69
  3. ^ a b Hedley, Arthur (1962). Selected Correspondence of Fryderyk Chopin. Heinemann, p. 34
  4. ^ a b c Weber 2020.
  5. ^ Niecks 1888, pp. 124125].
  6. ^ Zamoyski 2010, pp. 50–52 (locs. 801–838).
  7. ^ a b Walker (2018). p. 108.
  8. ^ Niecks 1888, pp. 126127.
  9. ^ a b To Tytus Woyciechowski in Poturzyn (1830-09-04) at Fryderyk Chopin Institute website.
  10. ^ a b Voynich, Ethel (1931). Chopin's Letters. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, p. 102
  11. ^ Niecks 1888, pp. 125126.
  12. ^ Zamoyski 2010, locs. 850-886.
  13. ^ a b Walker (2018). pp. 109110.
  14. ^ da Fonseca-Wollheim, Corinna [d]. "An Ingenious Frédéric Chopin". The New York Times. 19 November 2018.
  15. ^ Oltermann, Philip and Walker, Shaun (25 November 2020). "Chopin's interest in men airbrushed from history, programme claims: Journalist says he has found overt homoeroticism in Polish composer’s letters" in The Guardian.
  16. ^ Picheta, Rob (29 November 2020). "Was Chopin gay? The awkward question in one of the EU's worst countries for LGBTQ rights" at CNN.
  17. ^ Chilton, Louis (30 November 2020). "Frédéric Chopin’s same-sex love letters covered up by biographers and archivists, claims new programme: Swiss radio documentary explored evidence of the great composer’s attraction to men" in The Independent.
  18. ^ Knyt, Erinn E. (2017-04-01). "Ferruccio Busoni and the "Halfness" of Frédéric Chopin". Journal of Musicology. 34 (2): 280. doi:10.1525/jm.2017.34.02.241. ISSN 0277-9269.
  19. ^ Kallberg (2010), pp. 104–106.
  20. ^ Kallberg (2010), pp. 106–107.
  21. ^ Kallberg (2010), p. 110.
  22. ^ Kallberg (2010), p. 112.
Sources

Versions of the proposal

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The main versions of the proposal are:

  • 3rd statement version: 07:38, 20 December 2020 (UTC)
  • 4th statement version: 07:51, 21 December 2020 (UTC)
  • 5th statement version: 21:29, 22 December 2020 (UTC)
  • 6th statement version: 16:59, 23 December 2020 (UTC)