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Huneker, James, 1860-1921

"Chopin : the Man and His Music"


Tarnowski declares him to have been Chopin's warmest friend and
in his poetry a starting point of inspiration for the composer.
In July 1829, accompanied by two friends, Chopin started for
Vienna. Travelling in a delightful, old-fashioned manner, the
party saw much of the country--Galicia, Upper Silesia and Moravia-
-the Polish Switzerland. On July 31 they arrived in the Austrian
capital. Then Chopin first began to enjoy an artistic atmosphere,
to live less parochially. His home life, sweet and tranquil as it
was, could not fail to hurt him as artist; he was flattered and
coddled and doubtless the touch of effeminacy in his person was
fostered. In Vienna the life was gayer, freer and infinitely more
artistic than in Warsaw. He met every one worth knowing in the
artistic world and his letters at that period are positively
brimming over with gossip and pen pictures of the people he knew.
The little drop of malice he injects into his descriptions of the
personages he encounters is harmless enough and proves that the
young man had considerable wit.


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