Did Chopin Compose Only For Piano?

If you take a look back through the hundreds of years of Western Musical history, you’ll quickly discover that many of the composers wrote music for a broad variety of instruments, ensembles, orchestral, and choirs.

Frederic Chopin (1810 – 1849) was a composer with almost a singular focus: the piano. This was the instrument Chopin chose to study.

Accounts of him as a small child tell of Chopin listening avidly to his mother or his older sister playing the piano, and as young as six years old, Chopin tried to play as they did.

Chopin, even at this age, was attempting to compose music on the piano, and at seven years old, Chopin began to study the piano more formally.

If the stories are to be believed, even at this age, Chopin outstretched his teacher’s methods and developed his unique approach to the piano.

Did Chopin Compose Only For Piano

What we discover even in the young Chopin is a formidable talent. This talent was not only in composing but as a powerful, dextrous performer.

It is hardly a surprise then to realise that Chopin composed almost exclusively for the piano, an instrument with which he had a remarkable relationship. There are, however, several compositions that Chopin completed for other instruments.

Some doubt exists around one or two of these compositions as to whether Chopin genuinely composed them, but that is a rolling debate for musicologists.

One of the first pieces I found on this modest list is titled ‘Variations in E major’ on Rossini’s ‘La Cenerentola’. The approximate composition date of the set of variations is 1824. They are composed for flute and piano.

Four variations follow after the opening theme marked Andantino. Three variations are in E major, with the Piu lento written in the tonic minor (E minor). If you’re used to the pyrotechnics and emotional depth of Chopin’s piano music, these variations will probably not impress you.

The music is perfectly well composed but a matter of fact, even ordinary. Here maybe, is the margin of doubt surrounding the authorship of the work.

They are composed in a manner that matches some of the characteristics of the flute, although they seem not to have been as inspired as many of Chopin’s other pieces.

This is not the end of the narrative. Chopin composed three works for cello and piano. These spans a time frame from 1829 – 1846.

The pieces are Op.3 ‘Introduction and Polonaise Brillante’ in C major; Op.16 (B.70), ‘Grand Duo concertant’ in E major and Op.65 ‘Cello Sonata in G minor.

Of these three works, it is the final one that is truly worthy of note. It was dedicated to Auguste Franchomme and was the last composition published in his brief lifetime.

Franchomme was, by all accounts, a formidable French cellist who received many awards for his outstanding contribution to music. The last concert that Chopin gave was in Paris in 1848.

This work was included in this performance but only in the final three movements. Franchomme was, as you might expect, the solo cellist.

Chopin composed the Sonata (Op.65) in Paris between 1845 and 1846. The piece is formed in four movements as follows: Allegro moderato; Scherzo; Largo; Finale: Allegro. As far as we can tell, this final work gave Chopin considerable trouble.

He sketched and re-wrote large parts of this piece before he was content. The opening movement in D minor follows a sonata form structure, with the cello and piano assuming equally vital roles in this deeply troubled movement.

There is no avoiding the sense of darkness creeping ever closer coupled with despair. It is a vital and passionate movement that I suspect Chopin had to work hard to maintain the balance between the cello and piano.

Next, the Scherzo jumps in with tumultuous excitement, beauty, and lyricism. The opening mirrors the first movement in D minor with the Trio in the tonic major. Unusually, the slow movement is brief. It serves as a tranquil bridge between Scherzo and Finale.

To close, the last movement is impish, precocious, and expertly crafted. At times it seems as if Brahms raises his head with the abundance of hemiolas. Unexpected energy is released in this movement that powers the work to a G major conclusion.

Gladly, the trail of compositions not solely for piano does not run cold yet. With a posthumous opus number of 74, 17 songs date from 1829 – 1847.

Each is a setting of a Polish poem written by poets contemporary to the composer.  One exception is the setting of the Lithuanian poem ‘Piosnka litewska’. In 1910 two further songs were discovered and added to this collection.

It is believed that Chopin may have composed many more songs for voice and piano, but these are currently lost. A work dating from 1830 is scored for a trio of Cello, Violin, and Piano.

Like the Cello Sonata, this shares the key of G minor. The work has the early opus number eight. As far as we are aware, this is the only surviving composition of a violin.

The piece has four contrasting movements as follows: Allegro con fuoco; Scherzo:vivace; adagio sostenuto and Finale: allegretto.

The keys of the movements shift from the opening in G minor to G major for the Scherzo, E Flat major for the slow movement, and a return to G minor for the concluding movement.  

This is a compelling piece. It has the finely measured forms one expects from Chopin, with plenty of drama and character. The often-melancholy tones of Chopin’s works are not as apparent in this composition, although it never seems far away.

By many, the work has been described as a musical drama in four movements. Chopin struggled with the composition of this substantial piece working in separate periods across two years. The work’s premiere was in August 1830 in Chopin’s drawing room.

Chopin may be celebrated and recognised principally for his piano music, but he did step away from the instrument in some of these very fine compositions.

They are certainly not works to lightly overlook, and it is a pity that they do not receive as much limelight as the rest of his oeuvre.