LaFarge, Annik – The Bell Bookshop https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk Henley-on-Thames Wed, 18 Oct 2023 16:35:46 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/cropped-Bell-Background-Blue-32x32.png LaFarge, Annik – The Bell Bookshop https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk 32 32 Chasing Chopin: A Musical Journey Across Three Centuries, Four Countries, and a https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/chasing-chopin-a-musical-journey-across-three-centuries-four-countries-and-a/ Thu, 03 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/chasing-chopin-a-musical-journey-across-three-centuries-four-countries-and-a/ A modern take on a classical icon: this original, entertaining, well-researched book uses the story of when, where, and how Chopin composed his most famous work.]]> The Frédéric Chopin Annik LaFarge presents here is not the melancholy, sickly, romantic figure so often portrayed. The artist she discovered is, instead, a purely independent spirit: an innovator who created a new musical language, an autodidact who became a spiritually generous, trailblazing teacher, a stalwart patriot during a time of revolution and exile.

In Chasing Chopin she follows in his footsteps during the three years, 1837-1840, when he composed his iconic “Funeral March”-using its composition story to illuminate the key themes of his life: a deep attachment to his Polish homeland; his complex relationship with writer George Sand; their harrowing but consequential sojourn on Majorca; the rapidly developing technology of the piano, which enabled his unique tone and voice; social and political revolution in 1830s Paris. Each of these threads-musical, political, social, personal-is woven through the “Funeral March” in Chopin’s Opus 35 sonata, a melody so famous it’s known around the world even to people who know nothing about classical music.

The result is an engrossing, page-turning work of musical discovery and an artful portrayal of a man whose work and life continue to inspire artists and cultural innovators in astonishing ways.

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