Chopin had a dual citizenship, French and Polish.

At the age of seven, Chopin was giving his first public concerts.

In the summer of 1836, Chopin asked Maria Wodzinska to marry him. After one year of exchanging letters this relationship faded, mostly due to Chopin’s ambivalence.

Chopin created a new musical form – a Mazurka. His Mazurkas written under the influence of Polish folk music vary is tempo and character depending on which of the Polish dances they are based on: Mazur (rather fast and powerful), Oberek(very fast and happy) or Kujawiak (slow and melancholic).

Chopin’s Concerto in f minor No.2 was written before his Concerto No.1 in eminor.

In his b minor Scherzo No.1 written during Christmas of 1831, the middle part is based on a Polish Christmas Carol- Lulajze Jezuniu (Sleep Baby Jezus).

His set of 24 Preludes is based on Bach’s idea represented in 24 Preludes and Fugues (one in each key signature).  The only difference is that Bach’s Preludes and Fugues are written in the chromatic order of the keys (C major, c minor, C sharp major, c sharp minor etc) and Chopin’s set follows major and its relative minor order (C major, a minor, G major, e minor etc).

When Chopin died, only three of his compositions were played at his funeral. They were: the Preludes in e minor No.4 and b minor No.6 and the Funeral March from his Sonata in b flat minor.

Chopin was a great patriot, a political exile without the right to come back to Poland, which at that time was under the Russian Empire’s rule. Unfortunately his life for a couple of decades after the Second World War was presented by the way of a fairytale about the child prodigy, who became very successful in his career and having left Poland, never came back.