A given name is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name (surname). A given name is purposefully ''given'', usually by a child's parents at or near birth, in contrast to an inherited one such as a family name.

In most European (and Europe-derived) cultures, the given name usually comes before the family name (though generally not in lists and catalogs), and so is known as a forename or first name; but the family name traditionally comes first in Hungary, parts of Africa and most of East Asia (e.g. China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam). In East Asia, even part of the given name may be shared among all members of a given generation in a family and the family's extensions, to differentiate those generations from other generations.

Under the common Western naming convention, people generally have one or more forenames (either given or acquired). If more than one, there is usually a main forename (for everyday use) and one or more supplementary forenames; but sometimes two or more carry equal weight. Beyond preceding the surname there is no particular ordering rule for forenames. Often the main forename is at the beginning, resulting in a ''first'' name and one or more ''middle'' names, but other arrangements are quite common.

Given names are often used in a familiar and friendly manner in informal situations. In more formal situations the surname is used instead, unless it is necessary to distinguish between people with the same surname. The idiom "on a first-name basis" (or "on first-name terms") alludes to the familiarity of addressing another by a given name.

The western style of having both a family name (surname) and a given name (Christian name or forename) is far from universal. In many countries it is common for ordinary people to have only one name or Mononym.

Legality

A child's given name or names are usually assigned around the time of birth. In most jurisdictions, the name at birth is a matter of public record, inscribed on the birth certificate or equivalent. In some jurisdictions, mainly civil-law jurisdictions such as France, Quebec, the Netherlands or Germany, the functionary whose job it is to record acts of birth may act to prevent parents from giving the child a name that may cause him or her harm (in France, by referring the case to a local judge). Even spell-checking of the name is done.

Men born in one country who immigrate to another with different naming conventions may have their names legally changed accordingly. If the name is not assigned at birth it may be assigned at a naming ceremony with families and friends attending.

In 1991, in protest of Swedish naming laws, two parents attempted to name their child Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116, claiming that it was "a pregnant, expressionistic development that we see as an artistic creation."

Origin of given names

Given names most often derive from the following categories: Aspiring personal traits (external and internal). For example, the name Clement means "merciful". English examples include Faith, Prudence and August. Occupations, for example George means "farmer". Circumstances of birth, for example Thomas meaning "twin" or the Latin name ''Quintus'', which was traditionally given to the fifth male child. Objects, for example Peter means "rock" and Edgar means "rich spear". Physical characteristics, for example Calvin means "bald". Variations on another name, especially to change the sex of the name (Pauline, Georgia) or to translate from another language (for instance, the names Francis or Francisco that come from the name Franciscus meaning "Frenchman"). Surnames, for example Winston, Harrison, and Ross. Such names often come from families that are frequently intermarried with the family bearing the individual's surname. Places, for example Brittany and Lorraine. Time of birth, for example day of the week, as in Kofi Annan, whose given name means "born on Friday", or the holiday on which one was born, for example, the name Natalie meaning "[born on] Christmas day" in Latin. Combination of the above, for example the Armenian name Sirvart means "love rose." Names of unknown or disputed etymology, for example Mary.

In many cultures, given names are reused, especially to commemorate ancestors or those who are particularly admired, resulting in a limited repertoire of names that sometimes vary by orthography.

The most familiar example of this, to Western readers, is the use of Biblical and saints' names in most of the Christian countries (with Ethiopia, in which names were often ideals or abstractions—Haile Selassie, "power of the Trinity"; Haile Miriam, "power of Mary"—as the most conspicuous exception). However, the name Jesus is considered taboo or sacrilegious in some parts of the Christian world, though this taboo does not extend to the cognate Joshua or related forms which are common in many languages even among Christians.

Similarly, the name Mary, now popular if not ubiquitous among Christians, particularly Roman Catholics, was considered too holy for secular use until about the 12th century. In countries that particularly venerated Mary, this remained the case much longer; in Poland, until the arrival in the 17th century of French queens named Marie.

Most common given names in English (and many other European languages) can be grouped into broad categories based on their origin:

Hebrew names, most often from the Bible, are very common in—or are elements of names used in—the historically Christian countries. Some have elements meaning "God", especially "El". Examples: Michael, Joshua, Daniel, Joseph, David, Adam, Elizabeth, Hannah and Mary. There are also a handful of names in use derived from the Aramaic, particularly the names of prominent figures in the New Testament—such as Thomas, Martha and Bartholomew.

* All of the Semitic peoples of history and the present day use at least some names constructed like these in Hebrew (and the ancient Hebrews used names not constructed like these—such as Moses, probably an Egyptian name related to the names of Pharaohs like Thutmose and Ahmose). The Muslim world is the best-known example (with names like Saif-al-din, "sword of the faith", or Abd-Allah, "servant of God"), but even the Carthagenians had similar names: cf. Hannibal, "the grace of god" (in this case not the Abrahamic deity God, but the deity—probably Marduk—whose title is normally left untranslated, as Baal).

Germanic names are characteristically warlike; roots with meanings like "glory", "strength", and "will" are common. The "-bert" element common in many such names comes from ''beraht'', which means "bright". Examples: Robert, Edward, Roger, Richard, Albert, Carl, Alfred, Rosalind, Emma, Eric and Matilda.

French forms of Germanic names. Since the Norman conquest of England, many English given names of Germanic origin are used in their French forms. Examples: Robert, Charles, Henry, William, Albert.

Slavic names are often of a peaceful character, the compounds being derived from word roots meaning "to protect", "to love", "peace", "to praise [gods]", "to give". Examples: Milena, Vesna, Bohumil, Dobromir, Svetlana, Vlastimil. The names have also warlike character and are built of words meaning "fighter", "war", "anger". Examples : Casimir, Sambor, Wojciech and Zbigniew. Many of them consist of word "slava" - glory: Bolesław, Miroslav, Vladislav, Radoslav and Stanisław.

Celtic names are sometimes anglicised versions of Celtic forms, but the original form may also be used. Examples: Alan, Brian, Brigid, Mórag, Logan, Ciarán, Jennifer, and Seán. These names often have origins in Celtic words, as Celtic versions of the names of internationally known Christian saints, as names of Celtic mythological figures, or simply as long-standing names whose ultimate etymology is unclear.

Greek names can be derived from the Greco-Roman gods, or may have other meanings. Some may be derived from the New Testament and early Christian traditions. Some of the names are often, but not always, anglicised. Examples: Eleanor, Stephen, Alexander, Andrew, Peter, Gregory, George, Christopher, Melissa, Margaret, Nicholas, Jason, Timothy, Chloe and Zoë.

Latin names can also be adopted unchanged, or modified; in particular, the inflected element can be dropped, as often happens in borrowings from Latin to English. Examples: Laura, Victoria, Marcus, Justin, Paul (from Lat. "Paulus"), Julius, Cecilia, Felix, Julia, Trent, Pascal (not a traditional-type Latin name, but the adjective-turned-name ''paschalis'', "relating to the ''Pascha''"—English "Easter").

Word names come from English vocabulary words. Feminine names of this sort—in more languages than English, and more cultures than Europe alone—frequently derive from nature, flower, birds, colors, or gemstones. Examples include Jasmine, Lavender, Dawn, Daisy, Rose, Iris, Petunia, Rowan, and Violet. Male names of this sort are less common—sometimes names like Bronco and Wolf associated with strong or dangerous animals. (This is more common in some other languages, such as Northern Germanic and Turkish).

Trait names most conspicuously include the Christian virtues, mentioned above, and normally used as feminine names (such as the three Christian virtues—Faith, Hope, and Charity).

Diminutives are sometimes used to distinguish between two or more people with the same given name, and are often used by children. In English, Robert may be changed to "Robby" or Daniel changed to "Danny". In German the names Hänsel and Gretel (as in the famous fairy tale) are the diminutive forms of Johann and Margarete. Examples: Vicky, Danny, Abby, Ali.

Shortened Names (see nickname) are generally nicknames of a longer name, but they are instead given as a person's entire given name. For example, a man may simply be named "Jim", and it is not short for James. Examples: Beth, Dan, Max, Pete, Steve.

Feminine variations Many masculine names have feminine variations, often multiple ones. Examples: Charlotte, Stephanie, Victoria, Philippa, Jane, Jacqueline, Josephine, Danielle, Paula, Pauline, Patricia and Francesca.

Frequently, a given name has versions in many different languages. For example, the biblical name ''Susanna'' also occurs in its original biblical Hebrew version, ''Shoshannah'', its Spanish and Portuguese version ''Susana'', and its French version, ''Suzanne'', and its Polish version, ''Zuzanna''.

East Asia

Chinese given names are often unique, because meaningful Han characters can be combined extensively. But Korean names and Vietnamese names are usually simply vernacularized conventions derived from their Chinese counterparts. However, some parents recycle popular given names as well. The names of famous and successful people are also reused occasionally. Nevertheless, many Chinese and Korean parents invest tremendous effort in considering the names of their children before birth, often with comprehensive dictionaries or with religious guides, formal or informal. Sometimes, especially in traditional families, paternal grandparents are the name-givers.

Unlike European languages, the Chinese language does not have a particular set of words reserved for given names; any combination of Chinese characters theoretically can be used as a given name. This fact sometimes makes Chinese people think that there may be more English-speaking people sharing identical full names than Chinese. This is not the case, because English has a much larger variety of family names.

In many Westernized Asian locations, many Asians also use a Western (often English) given name, which may be official or not, in addition to their Asian given name. This is also true for Asian students at colleges in countries like the United States, Canada, and Australia, and people who wish to do business internationally—both as means to ease communication with people who cannot properly pronounce the names in their official languages. It's also interesting to note that when Chinese immigrants or students give themselves English given names, they tend to pick one that closely matches their original name if possible. For example, a Chinese man named "Ah Dar" might become "Arthur" if he emigrates to the United States, or a Vietnamese man named "Khanh" might become "Ken" if he moves to an English-speaking country.

Many female Japanese names, such as Yoko Ono's, end in ''ko'' (子), which means "child". This has caused some confusion among westerners, because in some Romance languages, masculine names often end in ''o,'' and feminine names often end in ''a.'' People used to names like ''Tino''/''Tina'' are surprised that ''Mariko'' or ''Yoko'' is female.

Gender

Most names in English are specifically masculine or feminine, but there are many unisex names as well, such as Jordan, Jamie, Jesse, Alex, Ashley, Chris, Hilary/Hillary, Kim_(given_name), Leslie/Lesley, Joe/Jo, Jackie, Pat, Sam. Often, one gender is predominant; often a particular spelling is more common for each of the two genders, even when the pronunciation is the same.

Many culture groups, past and present, did not or do not gender names strongly, so that many or all of their names are unisex. On the other hand, in many languages including most Indo-European languages (but not English), gender is inherent in the grammar.

Christian name

The term Christian name is often used as a general synonym for ''given name''. Strictly speaking, the term applies to a name formally given to a child at an infant baptism or "christening".

Popularity distribution of given names

The popularity (frequency) distribution of given names typically follows a power law distribution.

Since about 1800 in England and Wales and in the U.S., the popularity distribution of given names has been shifting so that the most popular names are losing popularity. For example, in England and Wales, the most popular female and male names given to babies born in 1800 were Mary and John, with 24% of female babies and 22% of male babies receiving those names, respectively. In contrast, the corresponding statistics for in England and Wales in 1994 were Emily and James, with 3% and 4% of names, respectively. Not only have Mary and John gone out of favor in the English speaking world, also the overall distribution of names has changed significantly over the last 100 years for females, but not for males. This has led to an increasing amount of diversity for female names.

Influence of pop culture

Popular culture appears to have an influence on naming trends, at least in the United States and United Kingdom. Newly famous celebrities and public figures may influence the popularity of names. For example, in 2004, the names "Keira" and "Kiera" respectively became the 51st and 92nd most popular girls' names in the UK, following the rise in popularity of British actress Keira Knightley. In 2001, the use of Colby as a boys' name for babies in the United States jumped from 233rd place to 99th, just after Colby Donaldson was the runner-up on ''Survivor: The Australian Outback''. Also, the female name "Miley" which before was not in the top 1000 was 278th most popular in 2007, following the rise to fame of singer-actress Miley Cyrus (who was named Destiny at birth).

Characters from fiction also seem to influence naming. After the name Kayla was used for a character on the American soap opera ''Days of our Lives'', the name's popularity increased greatly. The name Tammy, and the related Tamara became popular after the movie ''Tammy and the Bachelor'' came out in 1957. Some names were established or spread by being used in literature. Notable examples include Jessica, a name created by William Shakespeare in his play "The Merchant of Venice", Vanessa, created by Jonathan Swift; Fiona, a character from James Macpherson's spurious cycle of Ossian poems; and Wendy, an obscure name popularised by J. M. Barrie in his play ''Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up''; and Madison, a character from the movie ''Splash''. Lara and Larissa were rare in America before the appearance of ''Doctor Zhivago,'' and have become fairly common since.

Songs can influence the naming of children. Jude jumped from 814th most popular male name in 1968 to 668th in 1969, following the release of The Beatles's "Hey Jude". Similarly, Layla charted as 969th most popular in 1972 after the Eric Clapton song. It had not been in the top 1,000 before.

Kayleigh became a particularly popular name in the United Kingdom following the release of a song by the British rock group Marillion. Government statistics in 2005 revealed that 96% of Kayleighs were born after 1985, the year in which Marillion released "Kayleigh".

Popular culture figures need not be admirable in order to influence naming trends. For example, Peyton came in to the top 1000 as a female given name for babies in the United States for the first time in 1992 (at #583), immediately after it was featured as the name of an evil nanny in the film ''The Hand That Rocks the Cradle''. On the other hand, for example, Adolf has fallen out of use since the Second World War.

Twin names

In some cultures, twins may be given distinctive pairs of names. Twin names are sometimes similar in sound, for example boy/girl twins named Christian and Christina, or twin girls named Sudha and Subha in India, or Ojor and Omon in Nigeria. The names may have a thematic similarity such as Jesse (or Jessica) and James (after the American outlaw Jesse James), or Matthew and Mark (the first two books of the New Testament in the Bible), or Castor and Pollux (semi-divine twins in Greek mythology), or Romulus and Remus (the mythical founders of Rome).

The oldest ever female twins, who both died in 2000 and 2001, were named Kin Narita and Gin Kanie, gold and silver respectively in Japanese.

For more possible origins, see the article List of twins.

Related articles and lists

List of most popular given names by state in the United States

Most popular given names in many different countries and cultures

Name days

Names of God

Personal name

By type

Middle name

Nickname

Pseudonym

Saint's name

* Calendar of saints

Slave name

Surname

Theophoric names

* Theophory in the Bible

Unisex name

By language

;Indo-European

Baltic

* Lithuanian name

Celtic

*Irish name (list)

*Scottish Gaelic name (list)

Germanic names

* Dutch name

* German names

Greek

* Greek name

Indian

* Indian names

Persian

* Persian name

French

* French names

Italian

* Italian name

Portuguese

* Portuguese name

Roman

* Roman naming conventions

Scandinavian

* Scandinavian given names

Slavic names

* Bulgarian names

* Croatian name

* Czech names

* Name days in Slovakia

* Polish names

* Russian name

* Serbian name

* Slovak name

Spanish

* Spanish name

;Central Asia, Altaic, Finno-Ugric

Finnish name

Hungarian name

Mongolian name

Names in Russian Empire, Soviet Union and CIS countries

Tatar name

;Middle East

Arabic name

Hebrew name

Turkish name

;East Asia

Chinese name

Indonesian name

* Balinese name

* Javanese name

Japanese name

Korean name

Malaysian name

Philippine name

Thai name

Tibetan name

Vietnamese name

;Africa

Akan name

;Language isolates

Semen (anthroponym)

References

External links

Given Name Frequency Project – Analysis of long-term trends in given names in England and Wales. Includes downloadable datasets of names for people interested in studying given name trends.

NameVoyager – Java applet listing the frequency of the Top 1000 American baby names throughout history.

U.S. Census Bureau: Distribution of Names Files Large ranked list of male and female given names in addition to last names.

Popular Baby Names – The Social Security Administration page for Popular U.S. Baby Names

br:Anv-badez ca:Prenom cs:Rodné jméno da:Fornavn de:Vorname et:Eesnimi es:Nombre_propio#Nombres_de_pila fr:Prénom fy:Foarnamme he:שם פרטי hr:Osobno ime lb:Virnumm nl:Voornaam no:Navn nn:Personnamn pl:Imię pt:Prenome ru:Личное имя simple:Given name sk:Meno (prvé meno) sr:Lično ime fi:Etunimi sv:Förnamn wa:Pitit no

name	Erik Satie
birth name	Erik Alfred Leslie Satie
birth date	May 17, 1866
birth place	Honfleur, France
death date	July 01, 1925
death place	Paris, France
occupation	Pianist, Composer
partner	Suzanne Valadon }}

Éric Alfred Leslie Satie () (17 May 1866 – Paris, 1 July 1925; signed his name Erik Satie after 1884) was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde. His work was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, repetitive music, and the Theatre of the Absurd.

An eccentric, Satie was introduced as a "gymnopedist" in 1887, shortly before writing his most famous compositions, the ''''. Later, he also referred to himself as a "phonometrician" (meaning "someone who measures sounds") preferring this designation to that of a "musician", after having been called "a clumsy but subtle technician" in a book on contemporary French composers published in 1911.

In addition to his body of music, Satie also left a remarkable set of writings, having contributed work for a range of publications, from the dadaist ''391'' to the American top culture chronicle ''Vanity Fair''. Although in later life he prided himself on always publishing his work under his own name, in the late nineteenth century he appears to have used pseudonyms such as and in some of his published writings.

Early life and training

Satie was the son of Alfred Satie, and his wife Jane Leslie (née Anton) who was born in London to Scottish parents. Erik was born at Honfleur in Normandy; his home there is open to the public. When Satie was four years old, his family moved to Paris, his father having been offered a translator's job in the capital. After his mother's death in 1872, he was sent, together with his younger brother Conrad, back to Honfleur, to live with his paternal grandparents. There he received his first music lessons from a local organist. When his grandmother died in 1878, the two brothers were reunited with their father in Paris, who remarried (a piano teacher) shortly afterwards. From the early 1880s onwards, Satie started publishing salon compositions by his step-mother and himself, among others.

In 1879 Satie entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he was soon labelled untalented by his teachers. Georges Mathias, his professor of piano at the Conservatoire, described his pupil's piano technique in flatly negative terms, "insignificant and laborious" and "worthless". Émile Descombes called him "the laziest student in the Conservatoire". Years later Satie related that Mathias, with great insistence, told him that his real talent lay in composing. After being sent home for two and a half years, he was readmitted to the Conservatoire at the end of 1885, but was unable to make a much more favourable impression on his teachers than he had before, and, as a result, resolved to take up military service a year later. However, Satie's military career did not last very long; within a few weeks he left the army through deceptive means.

Career

Montmartre

In 1887 Satie left home to take lodgings in Montmartre. By this time he had started what was to be an enduring friendship with the romantic poet Patrice Contamine, and had had his first compositions published by his father. He soon integrated with the artistic clientele of the Le Chat Noir Café-cabaret, and started publishing his ''Gymnopédies''. Publication of compositions in the same vein ('''', '''', etc.) followed. In the same period he befriended Claude Debussy. He moved to a smaller room, still in Montmartre (), in 1890. By 1891 he was the official composer and chapel-master of the Rosicrucian Order "", led by , which led to compositions such as '''', '''', and the ''''.

By mid-1892 he had composed the first pieces in a compositional system of his own making (''''), had provided incidental music to a chivalric esoteric play (two ''''), had had his first hoax published (announcing the premiere of '''', an anti-Wagnerian opera he probably never composed), and had broken with Péladan, starting that autumn with the ''Uspud'' project, a "Christian Ballet", in collaboration with . While the comrades from both the and sympathised, a promotional brochure was produced for the project, which reads as a pamphlet for a new esoteric sect.

In 1893 he met the young Maurice Ravel for the first time, Satie's style emerging in the first compositions of the youngster. One of Satie's own compositions of that period, the ''Vexations'', was to remain undisclosed until after his death. By the end of the year he had founded the (the Metropolitan Church of Art of the Leading Christ). As its only member, in the role of "Parcier et Maître de Chapelle" he started to compose a '''' (later to become known as the ''''), and wrote a flood of letters, articles and pamphlets showing off his self-assuredness in religious and artistic matters. To give an example: he applied for membership of the Académie Française twice, leaving no doubt in the application letter that the board of that organisation (presided by Camille Saint-Saëns) as much as owed him such membership. Such proceedings without doubt rather helped to wreck his popularity in the cultural establishment. In 1895 he inherited some money, allowing him to have more of his writings printed, and to change from wearing a priest-like habit to being the "Velvet Gentleman".

Move to Arcueil

By mid-1896 all of Satie's financial means had vanished, and he had to move to cheaper and much smaller lodgings, first at the , and two years later, after he'd composed the two first sets of ''' in 1897, to Arcueil, a suburb some five kilometres from the centre of Paris. During this period he re-established contact with his brother Conrad for numerous practical and financial matters, disclosing some of his inner feelings in the process. The letters to Conrad made it clear that he had set aside any religious ideas.

From 1899 on Satie started making money as a cabaret pianist, adapting over a hundred compositions of popular music for piano or piano and voice, adding some of his own. The most popular of these were '''', text by Henry Pacory; '''', text by Vincent Hyspa; '''', a waltz; ''"'', text by Dominique Bonnaud/Numa Blès; '''', a march; '''', text by Contamine de Latour lost, but the music later reappears in ''''; and many more, many of which have been lost. In his later years Satie would reject all his cabaret music as vile and against his nature, but for the time being, it was an income.

Only a few compositions that Satie took seriously remain from this period: ''Jack-in-the-box'', music to a pantomime by Jules Dépaquit (called a "" by Satie), '''', a short comic opera on a serious theme, text by Lord Cheminot, ''The Dreamy Fish'', piano music to accompany a lost tale by Lord Cheminot, and a few others that were mostly incomplete, hardly any of them staged, and none of them published at the time.

Both '''' and ''The Dreamy Fish'' have been analysed by Ornella Volta as containing elements of competition with Claude Debussy, of which Debussy was probably not aware, Satie not making this music public. Meanwhile, Debussy was having one of his first major successes with '''' in 1902, leading a few years later to ‘who-was-precursor-to-whom’ debates between the two composers, in which Maurice Ravel would also get involved.

In October 1905 Satie enrolled in Vincent d'Indy's Schola Cantorum de Paris to study classical counterpoint while still continuing his cabaret work. Most of his friends were as dumbfounded as the professors at the Schola when they heard about his new plan to return to the classrooms, especially as d'Indy was an admiring pupil of Saint-Saëns, not particularly favoured by Satie. Satie would follow these courses at the Schola, as a respected pupil, for more than five years, receiving a first (intermediate) diploma in 1908. Some of his classroom counterpoint-exercises, such as the '''', were published after his death. Another summary, of the period prior to the Schola, also appeared in 1911: the '''', which was a kind of compilation of the best of what he had written up to 1903.

Something that becomes clear through these published compilations is that Satie did not so much reject Romanticism and its exponents like Wagner, but that he rejected certain aspects of it. From his first composition to his last, he rejected the idea of musical development, in the strict definition of this term: the intertwining of different themes in a development section of a sonata form. As a result, his contrapuntal and other works were very short; the "new, modern" Fugues do not extend further than the exposition of the theme(s). Generally, he would say that he did not think it permitted that a composer take more time from his public than strictly necessary. Also Melodrama, in its historical meaning of the then popular romantic genre of "spoken words to a background of music", was something Satie avoided. His 1913 '''' could be seen as an absurdistic spoof of that genre.

In the meantime, other changes had also taken place: Satie had become a member of a radical socialist party, and had socialised with the Arcueil community: Amongst other things, he'd been involved in the "" work for children. He also changed his appearance to that of the 'bourgeois functionary' with bowler hat, umbrella, etc. He channelled his medieval interests into a peculiar secret hobby: In a filing cabinet he maintained a collection of imaginary buildings, most of them described as being made out of some kind of metal, which he drew on little cards. Occasionally, extending the game, he would publish anonymous small announcements in local journals, offering some of these buildings, e.g. a "castle in lead", for sale or rent.

Height of success and influence

Starting in 1912, Satie's new humorous miniatures for piano became very successful, and he wrote and published many of these over the next few years (most of them premiered by the pianist Ricardo Viñes). His habit of accompanying the scores of his compositions with all kinds of written remarks was now well established so that a few years later he had to insist that these not be read out during performances. He had mostly stopped using barlines by this time. In some ways these compositions were very reminiscent of Rossini's compositions from the final years of his life, grouped under the name Péchés de vieillesse.

However the acceleration in Satie's life did not come so much from the success of his new piano pieces; it was Ravel who inadvertently triggered the characteristics of Satie's remaining years and thus influenced the successive progressive artistic and cultural movements that rapidly manifested themselves in Paris over the following years. Paris was seen as the artistic capital of the world, and the beginning of the new century appeared to have set many minds on fire. In 1910 the "", a group of young musicians around Ravel, proclaimed their preference for Satie's earlier work from before the Schola period, reinforcing the idea that Satie had been a precursor of Debussy.

At first Satie was pleased that at least some of his works were receiving public attention, but when he realised that this meant that his more recent work was overlooked or dismissed, he looked for other young artists who related better to his more recent ideas, so as to have better mutual support in creative activity. Thus young artists such as Roland-Manuel, and later Georges Auric, and Jean Cocteau, started to receive more of his attention than the "".

As a result of his contact with Roland-Manuel, Satie again began publicising his thoughts, with far more irony than he had done before (amongst other things, the '''' and '''').

With Jean Cocteau, whom he had first met in 1915, Satie started work on incidental music for a production of Shakespeare's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (resulting in the ''''). From 1916, he and Cocteau worked on the ballet ''Parade'', which was premiered in 1917 by Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets russes, with sets and costumes by Pablo Picasso, and choreography by Léonide Massine. Through Picasso Satie also became acquainted with other cubists, such as Georges Braque, with whom he would work on other, aborted, projects.

With Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, and Germaine Tailleferre Satie formed the , shortly after writing ''Parade''. Later the group was joined by Francis Poulenc and Darius Milhaud. In September 1918, Satie – giving little or no explanation – withdrew from the . Jean Cocteau gathered the six remaining members, forming the Groupe des six (to which Satie would later have access, but later again would fall out with most of its members).

From 1919 Satie was in contact with Tristan Tzara, the initiator of the Dada movement. He became acquainted with other artists involved in the movement, such as Francis Picabia (later to become a Surrealist), André Derain, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Hugo and Man Ray, among others. On the day of his first meeting with Man Ray, the two fabricated the artist's first readymade: ''The Gift'' (1921). Satie contributed writing to the Dadaist publication ''391''. In the first months of 1922 he was surprised to find himself entangled in the argument between Tzara and André Breton about the true nature of avant-garde art, epitomised by the failure of the Congrès de Paris. Satie originally sides with Tzara, but manages to maintain friendly relations with most players in both camps. Meanwhile, an "" had formed around Satie, with young musicians like Henri Sauguet, Maxime Jacob, Roger Désormière and Henri Cliquet-Pleyel.

Finally he composed an "" ballet ('''') in collaboration with Picabia, for the of Rolf de Maré. In a simultaneous project, Satie added music to the surrealist film '''' by René Clair, which was given as an intermezzo for ''''.

Personal life

Satie and Suzanne Valadon, an artists' model and artist in her own right, and a long-time friend of Miguel Utrillo (and mother of Maurice Utrillo), began an affair early in 1893. After their first night together, he proposed marriage. The two did not marry, but Valadon moved to a room next to Satie's at the . Satie became obsessed with her, calling her his '''', and writing impassioned notes about "her whole being, lovely eyes, gentle hands, and tiny feet". During their relationship, Satie composed the '''' as a kind of prayer to restore peace of mind, and Valadon painted a portrait of Satie, which she gave to him. After six months she moved away, leaving Satie broken-hearted. Afterwards, he said that he was left with "nothing but an icy loneliness that fills the head with emptiness and the heart with sadness". It is believed this was the only intimate relationship Satie ever had.

Death

After years of heavy drinking, Satie died on 1 July 1925 from cirrhosis of the liver. Over the course of his 27 years in residence at Arcueil, no one had ever visited his room. After his death, Satie's friends discovered compositions that were totally unknown or thought to have been lost. These were found behind the piano, in the pockets of his velvet suits, and in other odd places, and included the ''Vexations''; ''Geneviève de Brabant'' and other unpublished or unfinished stage works; ''The Dreamy Fish''; many Schola Cantorum exercises; a previously unseen set of "canine" piano pieces; and several other works for piano, many untitled. Some of these would be published later as additional '''', '''', '''', and ''furniture music''.

Media

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Recordings and arrangements

Piano works

Recordings of Satie's piano works have been released by Cristina Ariagno, Jean-Pierre Armengaud, Jean-Joël Barbier, Aldo Ciccolini, Claude Coppens (live recording), Reinbert de Leeuw, Eve Egoyan, Philippe Entremont, Frank Glazer, Olof Höjer, Michel Legrand, Jacques Loussier, Anne Queffélec, Bill Quist, Pascal Rogé, João Paulo Santos, Yūji Takahashi, Branka Parlić, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Daniel Varsano, among others.

Orchestral and vocal

A recording of historical importance is '''', re-issued by EMI as a 2-CD set, containing among other pieces: ''Geneviève de Brabant'' (in a version before Contamine's text had been recovered), ''Le piège de Méduse'', ''Messe des pauvres'', etc. Many other recordings exist: '''' (Michel Plasson / ), ''Satie: Socrate [etc.]'' (Jean-Paul Fouchécourt / Ensemble), and recordings of songs, e.g., by Anne-Sophie Schmidt.

Arrangements in popular music

In 1968, Blood Sweat & Tears released their eponymous second album, which included an adaptation of Erik Satie's '''' (arranged by Dick Halligan) which they titled as ''Variations on a Theme by Erik Satie (First and Second Movements)''. The first movement is a straightforward elaboration of the basic theme using flutes, an acoustic guitar and a triangle. The second is a far more abstract variation using only brass instruments. In 1969, Halligan received a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Performance for the piece. In 1974, the jazz flutist Hubert Laws recorded an arrangement by Bob James of the "" in his "In the Beginning" double album. The band featured keyboardist Bob James, guitarist Gene Bertoncini, bassist Ron Carter, drummer Steve Gadd, three strings, and Hubert's brother Ronnie Laws on tenor sax. In 1979 the band "Sky" (Tristan Fry, Francis Monkman, Kevin Peek, Herbie Flowers, and John Williams) included a version of , which was arranged by John Williams, on the band's first album, which was entitled "Sky" In 1980, Gary Numan's 7-inch "We Are Glass" featured " (First Movement)" on the B-side.

In 1990, Movement 98's (Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne) single "Joy and Heartbreak" used the opening phrase of Trois Gymnopedies as the intro and instrumental.

In 1994, Malcolm McLaren arranged Gnossinne 3&4 in his concept album ''Paris''.

In 1999, electronic music act Plaid's CD "Restproof Clockwork" included a track called "Tearisci" which is an uncredited version of Satie's "Pièces Froides, No. 2: Danses De Travers: III. Encore".

In 2000, ex-Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett released the album, "Sketches of Satie", performing Satie's works on acoustic guitar, with contributions by his brother John on flute.

The English electronic duo Isan recorded versions of the three for a 2006 7-inch single, "" on the Morr Music record label. The 2nd movement of his '''' has been used in the original soundtrack of 2010 Japanese animated film ''The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya'' by Kyoto Animation studio. The full ''Gymnopédies'' as long as ''Gnossiennes'' are included in the 2nd CD of this OST.

Ogive Number 2 (incorrectly labelled Ogive Number 1) was re-recorded electronically by William Orbit on his album Pieces in a Modern Style

See also

Ambient music

Dada

Impressionist music

List of compositions by Erik Satie

Surrealism

References

Sources

''In English, unless indicated:''

Writings by Satie

''A Mammal's Notebook: Collected Writings of Erik Satie'' (Serpent's Tail; Atlas Arkhive, No 5, 1997) ISBN 0-947757-92-9 (with introduction and notes by Ornella Volta, translations by Anthony Melville, contains several drawings by Satie)

'''' (Paris: Fayard/Imes, 2000; 1265pp) ISBN 2-213-60674-9 (an almost complete edition of Satie's letters, in French)

Books and Articles on Satie

Allan, Kenneth R. “Metamorphosis in ''391'': A Cryptographic Collaboration by Francis Picabia, Man Ray, and Erik Satie.” ''Art History'' 34, No. 1 (February, 2011): 102-125.

Davis, Mary E., ''Erik Satie''. Reaktion Books – Critical Lives. June 2007. ISBN 9781861893215

Gillmor, Alan M., ''Erik Satie'' (Twayne Pub., 1988, reissued 1992; 387pp) ISBN 0-393-30810-3

Myers, Rollo H., ''Erik Satie.'' (Dover Publications, New York 1968.) ISBN 0-486-21903-8

Orledge, Robert, ''Satie Remembered'' (London: Faber and Faber, London, 1995)

Orledge, Robert, ''Satie the Composer'' Cambridge University Press: 1990; 437pp – in the series ''Music in the Twentieth Century'' [ed.] Arnold Whittall) ISBN 0-521-35037-9

Templier, Pierre-Daniel (translated by Elena L. French and David S. French), ''Erik Satie'' (The MIT Press, 1969, reissued 1971) ISBN 0-262-70005-0 ''and'' (New York: Da Capo Press, 1980 reissue) ISBN 0-306-76039-8. Note: Templier extensively consulted Conrad, Erik Satie's brother, when writing this first biography that appeared in 1932. The English translation was, however, criticised by John Cage; in a letter to Ornella Volta (25 May 1983) he referred to the translation as disappointing compared to the formidable value of the original biography.

Volta, Ornella and Simon Pleasance, ''Erik Satie'' (Hazan: The Pocket Archives Series, 1997; 200pp) ISBN 2-85025-565-3

Volta, Ornella, transl. Michael Bullock, ''Satie Seen Through His Letters'' (Marion Boyars, 1989) ISBN 0-7145-2980-X

Whiting, Steven, ''Satie the Bohemian: from Cabaret to Concert Hall'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999; 596pp). A fully researched account of Satie's musical career in what then was regarded as popular music.

Other

Satie Home page – Niclas Fogwall's website dedicated to Satie

External links

Information and listening

Biography and photos

UbuWeb's Erik Satie pages – including an Erik Satie Primer and downloadable recordings

About Erik Satie – The eccentric Impressionist French composer and musician

Erik Satie at Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music

Three Gymnopedies by Eric Satie

erik-satie.com Website dedicated to the musician, with blog, timeline, gallery, biography

Scores

Public domain scores Satie's Scores + Audio

www.kreusch-sheet-music.net Free Scores by Satie

Satie's Scores – by the Mutopia Project

Category:1866 births Category:1925 deaths Category:20th-century classical composers Category:French socialists Category:French people of Scottish descent Category:Cabaret Category:Dada Category:Fin de siècle Category:French classical pianists Category:French composers Category:Neoclassical composers Category:People from Calvados Category:Schola Cantorum de Paris alumni Category:Blue plaques Category:Les six

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Frédéric François Chopin (; Polish: ''Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin''; 22 February or 1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849) was a Polish composer, virtuoso pianist, and music teacher of French–Polish parentage. He was one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano".

Chopin was born in Żelazowa Wola, a village in the Duchy of Warsaw. A renowned child-prodigy pianist and composer, he grew up in Warsaw and completed his musical education there. Following the Russian suppression of the Polish November 1830 Uprising, he settled in Paris as part of the Polish Great Emigration. He supported himself as a composer and piano teacher, giving few public performances. From 1837 to 1847 he carried on a relationship with the French woman writer George Sand. For most of his life, Chopin suffered from poor health; he died in Paris in 1849 at the age of 39.

The vast majority of Chopin's works are exclusively for solo piano, the most notable exceptions being his two piano concertos. His compositions are technically demanding but emphasize nuance and expressive depth. Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu, scherzo, and prélude.

Life

Childhood

Chopin's father was Nicolas Chopin, a Frenchman from Lorraine who had emigrated to Poland in 1787 at the age of sixteen and had served in Poland's National Guard during the Kościuszko Uprising (1794). In France he had been baptized ''Nicolas'' but later, living in Poland, he used the Polish form of his given name, ''Mikołaj''. He subsequently tutored children of the aristocracy, including the Skarbeks, whose poorer relative, Justyna Krzyżanowska, he married. The wedding took place at the 16th-century parish church in Brochów on 2 June 1806. (Justyna's brother would become the father of American Union General Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski.)

Frédéric Chopin was the couple's second child and only son. (The eldest child, Ludwika, was to become his first piano teacher, and several decades later was to repatriate his heart from Paris.) He was born at Żelazowa Wola, forty-six kilometres west of Warsaw, in what was the Duchy of Warsaw. The parish baptismal record, discovered in 1892, gives his birthday as 22 February 1810, but a date one week later, 1 March, was stated by the composer and his family as his birthday; according to Chopin in a letter of 16 January 1833 to the chairman of the Polish Literary Society in Paris, he was "born 1 March 1810 at the village of Żelazowa Wola in the Province of Mazowsze." He was baptized on Easter Sunday, 23 April 1810, in the same Brochów church where his parents had married. The parish register cites his given names in the Latin form ''Fridericus Franciscus''; in Polish, he was ''Fryderyk Franciszek''. His godfather was Fryderyk Skarbek (1792–1866), a former pupil of Nicolas Chopin—a prison reformer who would design the Pawiak Prison of later ill fame, and great-great-uncle of World War II SOE agent Krystyna Skarbek; the godfather's son Józef Skarbek would, in 1841, marry Frédéric Chopin's erstwhile fiancée Maria Wodzińska.

In October 1810, when Chopin was seven months old, the family moved to Warsaw, where his father had accepted an offer from lexicographer Samuel Linde to teach French at the Warsaw Lyceum. The school was housed in the Saxon Palace, and the Chopin family lived on the palace grounds. In 1817 Grand Duke Constantine requisitioned the Saxon Palace for military purposes, and the Lyceum was moved to the Kazimierz Palace, which also hosted the newly founded Warsaw University. The family lived in a spacious second-floor apartment in an adjacent building. Chopin attended the Warsaw Lyceum from 1823 to 1826.

The Polish spirit, culture and language pervaded the Chopins' home, and as a result the son would never, even in Paris, perfectly master the French language. Louis Énault, a biographer, borrowed George Sand's phrase to describe Chopin as being "more Polish than Poland".

Others in Chopin's family were musically talented. Chopin's father played the flute and violin; his mother played the piano and gave lessons to boys in the elite boarding house that the Chopins maintained. As a result Frederic became conversant with music in its various forms at an early age.

Józef Sikorski, a musician and Chopin's contemporary, recalls in his ''Memoirs about Chopin'' (''Wspomnienie Chopina'') that, as a child, Chopin wept with emotion when his mother played the piano. By six, he was already trying to reproduce what he heard or make up new melodies. He received his earliest piano lessons not from his mother but from his older sister Ludwika (in English, "Louise").

Chopin's first professional piano tutor, from 1816 to 1822, was the Czech Wojciech Żywny. Though the youngster's skills soon surpassed his teacher's, Chopin later spoke highly of Żywny. Seven-year-old "little Chopin" (''Szopenek'') began giving public concerts that soon prompted comparisons with Mozart as a child and with Beethoven.

That same year, seven-year old Chopin composed two Polonaises, in G minor and B-flat major. The first was published in the engraving workshop of Father Izydor Józef Cybulski (composer, engraver, director of an organists' school, and one of the few music publishers in Poland); the second survives as a manuscript prepared by Nicolas Chopin. These small works were said to rival not only the popular ''polonaises'' of leading Warsaw composers, but the famous ''Polonaises'' of Michał Kleofas Ogiński. A substantial development of melodic and harmonic invention and of piano technique was shown in Chopin's next known ''Polonaise'', in A-flat major, which the young artist offered in 1821 as a name-day gift to Żywny.

About this time, at the age of eleven, Chopin performed in the presence of Alexander I, Tsar of Russia, who was in Warsaw to open the ''Sejm'' (Polish Parliament).

As a child, Chopin displayed an intelligence that was said to absorb everything and make use of everything for its development. He early showed remarkable abilities in observation and sketching, a keen wit and sense of humor, and an uncommon talent for mimicry. A story from his school years recounts a teacher being pleasantly surprised by a superb portrait that Chopin had drawn of him in class.

In those years, Chopin was sometimes invited to the Belweder Palace as playmate to the son of Russian Poland's ruler, Grand Duke Constantine, and charmed the irascible duke with his piano-playing. (A few years later, the Duke would flee the Belweder, just in the nick of time, at the very opening of the November 1830 Uprising, escaping the Polish officer cadets who rode up through the Royal Baths Park from their barracks in an effort to capture him.)

Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz attested to "little Chopin's" popularity in his dramatic eclogue, "''Nasze Verkehry''" ("Our Intercourse", 1818), in which the eight-year-old featured as a motif in the dialogues.

In the 1820s, when teenage Chopin was attending the Warsaw Lyceum and Warsaw Conservatory, he spent every vacation away from Warsaw: in Szafarnia (1824 – perhaps his first solo travel away from home – and 1825), Duszniki (1826), Pomerania (1827) and Sanniki (1828).

At the village of Szafarnia (where he was a guest of Juliusz Dziewanowski, father of schoolmate Dominik Dziewanowski) and at his other vacation venues, Chopin was exposed to folk melodies that he later transmuted into original compositions. His missives home from Szafarnia (the famous self-styled "Szafarnia Courier" letters), written in a very modern and lively Polish, amused his family with their spoofing of the Warsaw newspapers and demonstrated the youngster's literary gift.

An anecdote describes how Chopin helped quiet rowdy children by first improvising a story and then lulling them to sleep with a ''berceuse'' (lullaby) – after which he woke everyone with an ear-piercing chord.

Education

Chopin, tutored at home until he was thirteen, enrolled in the Warsaw Lyceum in 1823, but continued studying piano under Żywny's direction. In 1825, in a performance of the work of Ignaz Moscheles, he entranced the audience with his free improvisation, and was acclaimed the "best pianist in Warsaw".

In the autumn of 1826, Chopin began a three-year course of studies with the Silesian composer Józef Elsner at the Warsaw Conservatory, which was affiliated with the University of Warsaw (hence Chopin is counted among that university's alumni). Chopin's first contact with Elsner may have been as early as 1822; it is certain that Elsner was giving him informal guidance by 1823, and in 1826 Chopin officially began studying music theory, figured bass, and composition with Elsner.

In year-end evaluations, Elsner noted Chopin's "remarkable talent" and "musical genius". As had Żywny, Elsner observed, rather than influenced or directed, the development of Chopin's blossoming talent. Elsner's teaching style was based on his reluctance to "constrain" Chopin with "narrow, academic, outdated" rules, and on his determination to allow the young artist to mature "according to the laws of his own nature".

In 1827 the family moved to lodgings just across the street from Warsaw University, in the south annex of the Krasiński Palace at Krakowskie Przedmieście 5 (what is now the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts). Here the parents continued running their elite boarding house for male students. Young Chopin would live here until he left Warsaw in 1830. (In 1837–39, artist and poet Cyprian Norwid would live there while he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts; later he would pen the famous poem, "Chopin's Piano", about Russian troops' 1863 defenestration of the instrument.) The Chopin family's parlor (''salonik Chopinów'') is now maintained as a museum open to the public; it was in this parlor that Chopin first played many of his early compositions.

In 1829, Polish portraitist Ambroży Mieroszewski executed a set of five portraits of Chopin family members (the youngest daughter, Emilia, had died in 1827): Chopin's parents, his elder sister Ludwika, younger sister Izabela, and, in the first known portrait of him, the composer himself. (The originals perished in World War II; only black-and-white photographs remain.) In 1913, French musicologist and Chopin biographer Édouard Ganche would write that this painting of the precocious composer showed "a youth threatened by tuberculosis. His skin is very white, he has a prominent Adam's apple and sunken cheeks, even his ears show a form characteristic of consumptives." Chopin's younger sister Emilia had already died of tuberculosis at the age of fourteen, and their father would succumb to the same disease in 1844.

According to Polish musicologist and Chopin biographer Zdzisław Jachimecki, comparison of the juvenile Chopin with any earlier composer is difficult because of the originality of the works that Chopin was composing already in the first half of his life. At a comparable age, Bach, Mozart and Beethoven had still been apprentices, while Chopin was perceived by peers and audiences to be already a master who was pointing the path to the coming age.

Chopin himself never gave thematic titles to his instrumental works, but identified them simply by genre and number. His compositions were, however, often inspired by emotional and sensual experiences in his own life. One of his first such inspirations was a beautiful young singing student at the Warsaw Conservatory and later a singer at the Warsaw Opera, Konstancja Gładkowska. In letters to his friend Tytus Woyciechowski, Chopin indicated which of his works, and even which of their passages, were influenced by his erotic transports. His artist's soul was also enriched by friendships with such leading lights of Warsaw's artistic and intellectual world as Maurycy Mochnacki, Józef Bohdan Zaleski and Julian Fontana.

Youth

In September 1828, eighteen-year-old Chopin struck out for the wider world in the company of a family friend, the zoologist Feliks Jarocki, who planned to attend a scientific convention in Berlin. There Chopin enjoyed several unfamiliar operas directed by Gaspare Spontini, attended several concerts, and saw Carl Friedrich Zelter, Felix Mendelssohn and other celebrities. On his return trip, he was a guest of Prince Antoni Radziwiłł, governor of the Grand Duchy of Posen – himself an accomplished composer and aspiring cellist. For the Prince and his piano-playing daughter Wanda, Chopin composed his Introduction and Polonaise brillante in C major for cello and piano, Op. 3.

Back in Warsaw, in 1829, Chopin heard Niccolò Paganini play and met the German pianist and composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel. In August the same year, three weeks after completing his studies at the Warsaw Conservatory, Chopin made a brilliant debut in Vienna. He gave two piano concerts and received many favorable reviews – in addition to some that criticized the "small tone" that he drew from the piano.

This was followed by a concert, in December 1829, at the Warsaw Merchants' Club, where Chopin premièred his Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21; and by his first performance, on 17 March 1830, at the National Theater, in Warsaw, of his Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11. In this period he also began writing his first ''Études'' (1829–32).

Chopin's successes as a performer and composer opened the professional door for him to western Europe, and on 2 November 1830, seen off by friends and admirers, with a ring from Konstancja Gładkowska on his finger and carrying with him a silver cup containing soil from his native land, Chopin set out, writes Jachimecki, "into the wide world, with no very clearly defined aim, forever." He headed for Austria, intending to go on to Italy. Later that month, in Warsaw, the November Uprising broke out, and Chopin's friend and traveling companion, the future industrialist and art patron Tytus Woyciechowski, returned to Poland to enlist. Chopin, now alone in Vienna, writes Jachimecki, "afflicted by nostalgia, disappointed in his hopes of giving concerts and publishing, matured and acquired spiritual depth. From a romantic... poet... he grew into an inspired national bard who intuited the past, present and future of his country. Only now, at this distance, did he see all of Poland from the proper perspective, and understand what was great and truly beautiful in her, the tragedy and heroism of her vicissitudes."

When in September 1831 Chopin learned, while traveling from Vienna to Paris, that the uprising had been crushed, he poured "profanities and blasphemies, resembling the final verses of Konrad's improvisation," in his native Polish language into the pages of a little journal that he kept secret to the end of his life. He expressed fear for the safety of his family and other civilians, especially the womenfolk at risk of outrages by the Russian troops; mourned the death of "kindly [General] Sowiński" (to whose wife he had dedicated a composition); damned the French for not having come to the aid of the Poles; and expressed dismay that God had permitted the Russians to crush the Polish insurgents – "or are you [God] yourself a Russian?" These outcries of a tormented heart found musical expression in his Scherzo in B minor, Op. 20, and his "Revolutionary Étude", in C minor, Op. 10, No. 12.

Paris

Chopin arrived in Paris in late September 1831, still uncertain whether he would settle there for good. In fact he would never return to Poland, becoming one of many expatriates of the Polish Great Emigration. In February 1832 Chopin gave a concert that garnered universal admiration. The influential musicologist and critic François-Joseph Fétis wrote in ''Revue musicale'': "Here is a young man who, taking nothing as a model, has found, if not a complete renewal of piano music, then in any case part of what has long been sought in vain, namely, an extravagance of original ideas that are unexampled anywhere..." Only three months earlier, in December 1831, Robert Schumann, reviewing Chopin's ''Variations on "La ci darem la mano"'', Op. 2 (variations on a theme from Mozart's opera ''Don Giovanni''), had written: "Hats off, gentlemen! A genius."

After his Paris concert ''début'' in February 1832, Chopin realized that his light-handed keyboard technique was not optimal for large concert spaces. However, later that year he was introduced to the wealthy Rothschild banking family, whose patronage opened doors for him to other private salons.

In Paris, Chopin found artists and other distinguished company, as well as opportunities to exercise his talents and achieve celebrity, and before long he was earning a handsome income teaching piano to affluent students from all over Europe. He formed friendships with Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, Vincenzo Bellini, Ferdinand Hiller, Felix Mendelssohn, Heinrich Heine, Eugène Delacroix, Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, Alfred de Vigny, and Charles-Valentin Alkan.

Though an ardent Polish patriot, in France he used the French versions of his given names and traveled on a French passport, possibly to avoid having to rely on Imperial Russian documents. The French passport was issued on 1 August 1835, after Chopin had become a French citizen.

In Paris, Chopin seldom performed publicly. In later years he generally gave a single annual concert at the Salle Pleyel, a venue that seated three hundred. He played more frequently at salons – social gatherings of the aristocracy and artistic and literary elite – but preferred playing at his own Paris apartment for small groups of friends. His precarious health prevented his touring extensively as a traveling virtuoso, and beyond playing once in Rouen, he seldom ventured out of the capital. His high income from teaching and composing freed him from the strains of concert-giving, to which he had an innate repugnance. Arthur Hedley has observed that "As a pianist Chopin was unique in acquiring a reputation of the highest order on the basis of a minimum of public appearances—few more than thirty in the course of his lifetime."

In 1835 Chopin went to Carlsbad, where, for the last time in his life, he met with his parents. En route through Saxony on his way back to Paris, he met old friends from Warsaw, the Wodzińskis. He had made the acquaintance of their daughter Maria, now sixteen, in Poland five years earlier, and fell in love with the charming, intelligent, artistically talented young woman. The following year, in September 1836, upon returning to Dresden after having vacationed with the Wodzińskis at Marienbad, Chopin proposed marriage to Maria. She accepted, and her mother Countess Wodzińska approved in principle, but Maria's tender age and Chopin's tenuous health (in the winter of 1835–1836 he had been so ill that word had circulated in Warsaw that he had died) forced an indefinite postponement of the wedding. The engagement remained a secret to the world and never led to the altar. Chopin finally placed the letters from Maria and her mother in a large envelope, on which he wrote the Polish words ''"Moja bieda"'' ("My sorrow").

Chopin's feelings for Maria left their traces in his Waltz in A-flat major, "The Farewell Waltz", Op. 69, No. 1, written on the morning of his September departure from Dresden. On his return to Paris, he composed the Étude in F minor, the second in the Op. 25 cycle, which he referred to as "a portrait of Maria's soul." Along with this, he sent Maria seven songs that he had set to the words of Polish Romantic poets Stefan Witwicki, Józef Zaleski and Adam Mickiewicz.

After Chopin's matrimonial plans ended, Polish countess Delfina Potocka appeared episodically in Chopin's life as muse and romantic interest. He dedicated to her his Waltz in D flat major, Op. 64, No. 1, the famous "Minute Waltz".

During his years in Paris, Chopin participated in a small number of public concerts. The list of the programs' participants provides an idea of the richness of Parisian artistic life during this period. Examples include a concert on 23 March 1833, in which Chopin, Liszt and Hiller performed J. S. Bach's concerto for three harpsichords; and, on 3 March 1838, a concert in which Chopin, his pupil Adolphe Gutman, Alkan, and Alkan's teacher Pierre Joseph Zimmerman performed Alkan's arrangement, for eight hands, of Beethoven's 7th symphony.

Chopin was also involved in the composition of Liszt's ''Hexaméron''; Chopin's was the sixth (and last) variation on Bellini's theme.

George Sand

In 1836, at a party hosted by Countess Marie d'Agoult, mistress of friend and fellow composer Franz Liszt, Chopin met French author and feminist Amandine Aurore Lucille Dupin, the Baroness Dudevant, better known by her pseudonym, George Sand. Sand's earlier romantic involvements had included Jules Sandeau (their literary collaboration had spawned the pseudonym ''George Sand''), Prosper Mérimée, Alfred de Musset, Louis-Chrystosome Michel, the writer Charles Didier, Pierre-François Bocage and Félicien Mallefille.

Chopin initially felt an aversion to Sand. He declared to Ferdinand Hiller: "What a repulsive woman Sand is! But is she really a woman? I am inclined to doubt it." Sand, however, in a candid thirty-two page letter to Count Wojciech Grzymała, a friend to both her and Chopin, admitted strong feelings for the composer. In her letter she debated whether to abandon a current affair in order to begin a relationship with Chopin, and attempted to gauge the currency of his previous relationship with Maria Wodzińska, which she did not intend to interfere with should it still exist. By the summer of 1838, Chopin's and Sand's involvement was an open secret.

A notable episode in their time together was a turbulent and miserable winter on Majorca (8 November 1838 to 13 February 1839), where they, together with Sand's two children, had gone in the hope of improving Chopin's deteriorating health. However, after discovering the couple were not wedded, the deeply religious people of Majorca became inhospitable, making accommodations difficult to find; this compelled the foursome to take lodgings in a scenic yet stark and cold former Carthusian monastery in Valldemossa.

Chopin also had problems having his Pleyel piano sent to him. It arrived from Paris on 20 December but was held up by customs. (Chopin wrote on 28 December: "My piano has been stuck at customs for 8 days... They demand such a huge sum of money to release it that I can't believe it.") In the meantime Chopin had a rickety rented piano on which he practiced and may have composed some pieces.

On 3 December, he complained about his bad health and the incompetence of the doctors in Majorca: "I have been sick as a dog during these past two weeks. Three doctors have visited me. The first said I was going to die; the second said I was breathing my last; and the third said I was already dead."

On 4 January 1839, George Sand agreed to pay 300 francs (half the demanded amount) to have the Pleyel piano released from customs. It was finally delivered on 5 January. From then on Chopin was able to use the long-awaited instrument for almost five weeks, time enough to complete some works: some Preludes, Op. 28; a revision of the Ballade No. 2, Op. 38; two Polonaises, Op. 40; the Scherzo No. 3, Op. 39; the Mazurka in E minor from Op. 41; and he probably revisited his Sonata No. 2, Op. 35. The winter in Majorca is still considered one of the most productive periods in Chopin's life.

During that winter, the bad weather had such a serious effect on Chopin's health and chronic lung disease that, in order to save his life, the entire party were compelled to leave the island. The beloved French piano became an obstacle to a hasty escape. Nevertheless, George Sand managed to sell it to a French couple (the Canuts), whose heirs are the custodians of Chopin's legacy on Majorca and of the Chopin cell-room museum in Valldemossa.

The party of four went first to Barcelona, then to Marseille, where they stayed for a few months to recover. In May 1839, they headed to Sand's estate at Nohant for the summer. In autumn they returned to Paris, where initially they lived apart; Chopin soon left his apartment at 5 rue Tronchet to move into Sand's house at 16 rue Pigalle. The four lived together at this address from October 1839 to November 1842, while spending most summers until 1846 at Nohant. In 1842, they moved to 80 rue Taitbout in the Square d'Orléans, living in adjacent buildings.

It was around this time that we have evidence of Chopin's playing an instrument other than the piano. At the funeral of the tenor Adolphe Nourrit, who had jumped to his death in Naples but whose body was returned to Paris for burial, Chopin played an organ transcription of Franz Schubert's lied ''Die Gestirne''.

During the summers at Nohant, particularly in the years 1839–43, Chopin found quiet but productive days during which he composed many works. They included his Polonaise in A flat major, Op. 53, the "Heroic", one of his most famous pieces. Sand describes Chopin's tumultuous creative process, filled with emotion, weeping, complaints, and hundreds of changes of concept eventually returning to the initial inspiration, on an evening in Nohant with friend Eugène Delacroix:

As the composer's illness progressed, Sand became less of a lover and more of a nurse to Chopin, whom she called her "third child." In the years to come she would maintain her friendship with Chopin while often affectionately venting her impatience in letters to third parties, referring to him as a "child," a "little angel," a "sufferer" and a "beloved little corpse."

thumb|upright|Chopin. Daguerreotype, 1846 or 1847.In 1845, as Chopin's health continued to deteriorate, a serious problem emerged in his relations with Sand. Those relations were further soured in 1846 by problems involving her daughter Solange and the young sculptor Auguste Clésinger. In 1847 Sand published her novel ''Lucrezia Floriani'', whose main characters – a rich actress and a prince in weak health – could be interpreted as Sand and Chopin; the story was uncomplimentary to Chopin, who could not have missed the allusions as he helped Sand correct the printer's galleys. In 1847 he did not visit Nohant. Mutual friends attempted to reconcile them, but the composer was unyielding.

One of these friends was mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot. Sand had based her 1843 novel ''Consuelo'' on Viardot, and the three had spent many hours at Nohant. An outstanding opera singer, Viardot was also an excellent pianist who had initially wanted the piano to be her career and had taken lessons with Liszt and Anton Reicha. Her friendship with Chopin was based on mutual artistic esteem and similarity of temperament. The two had often played together; he had advised her on piano technique and had assisted her in writing a series of songs based on the melodies of his mazurkas. He in turn had gained from Viardot some first-hand knowledge of Spanish music.

In 1847, Sand and Chopin quietly ended their ten year relationship. Count Wojciech Grzymała, who followed their romance from the beginning, commented, "If (Chopin) had not had the misfortune of meeting G.S. [George Sand], who poisoned his whole being, he would have lived to be Cherubini's age." Chopin died at thirty-nine; his friend Cherubini died in Paris in 1842 at the age of eighty-one. The two composers are buried four meters apart at Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Final years

Chopin's public popularity as a virtuoso waned, as did the number of his pupils. In February 1848 he gave his last Paris concert. In April, with the Revolution of 1848 underway in Paris, he left for London, where he performed at several concerts and at numerous receptions in great houses. This tour was suggested to Chopin by his Scottish pupil and sometime secretary, Jane Stirling and her elder sister, the widowed Mrs. Katherine Erskine. Jane Stirling also made all the necessary arrangements and provided much of the necessary funding.

Toward the end of the summer he was invited by Jane Stirling to visit Scotland, staying at Calder House near Edinburgh and the castle (Johnstone, in Renfrewshire, near Glasgow), both owned by Jane Stirling's family members. It was by then being rumored, even internationally, that Miss Stirling and Chopin would soon announce their engagement but apparently Chopin had no amorous feelings for her. While in Edinburgh he also spent time at 10 Warriston Crescent, residing at the home of the Polish GP, Dr. Adam Łyszczyński, and being treated by him. He was generally so weak that Łyszczyński or his servant had to carry Chopin up and down stairs. He gave a single concert in Edinburgh, at the Hopetoun Rooms on Queen Street (now Erskine House).

In late October 1848, at the home of Dr. Łyszczyński, Chopin wrote out his last will and testament—"a kind of disposition to be made of my stuff in the future, if I should drop dead somewhere," he wrote his friend Wojciech Grzymała. In his thoughts he was now constantly with his mother and sisters, and conjured up for himself scenes of his native land by playing his adaptations of its folk music on cool Scottish evenings at Miss Stirling's castle.

Chopin made his last public appearance on a concert platform at London's Guildhall on 16 November 1848, when, in a final patriotic gesture, he played for the benefit of Polish refugees. His appearance on this occasion proved to be a well-intentioned mistake, as most of the participants were more interested in the dancing and refreshments than in Chopin's piano artistry, which cost him much effort and physical discomfort.

At the end of November, Chopin returned to Paris. He passed the winter in unremitting illness, but in spite of it he continued seeing friends and visited the ailing Adam Mickiewicz, soothing the Polish poet's nerves with his playing. He no longer had the strength to give lessons, but he was still keen to compose. He lacked money for the most essential expenses and for his physicians. He had to sell off his more valuable furnishings and belongings.

On 24 March 2011, Warsaw's Frédéric Chopin Museum recovered long-lost letters belonging to the composer. The letters are dated from 1845 to 1848, and describe his daily life and his cello sonata in G minor, opus 65. The letters were up for display at the Frédéric Chopin Museum until 25 April 2011.

Death

Feeling ever more poorly, Chopin longed to have a family member with him. In June 1849 his sister Ludwika Jędrzejewicz, who had given him his first piano lessons, agreed to come to Paris.

In September 1849, Chopin took a very beautiful, sunny apartment at Place Vendôme 12. The second-floor, seven-room apartment had previously housed the Russian embassy; Chopin could not afford it, but Jane Stirling, his wealthy Scottish pupil, rented it for him. On 15 October, when his condition took a marked turn for the worse, his numerous visitors were asked to leave, and a handful of his closest friends remained with him. A couple of times during those last two days, they thought that the end had come, but the composer was able to catch his breath again. He asked Delfina Potocka to play sonatas and prayed and called out to God, though only a few days earlier he had refused confession, saying that he did not believe in it. He complained that George Sand had promised that he "would die in her arms." He asked for a piece of paper and wrote: ''"Comme cette terre m'étouffera, je vous conjure de faire ouvrir mon corps pour [que] je ne sois pas enterré vif."'' ("As this earth will suffocate me, I implore you to have my body opened so that I will not be buried alive.")

On Wednesday 17 October, after midnight, the physician leaned over him and asked whether he was suffering greatly. "Not any more," Chopin replied. He died a few minutes before two o'clock in the morning.

Frédéric Chopin's illness and the cause of his death remained unclear and consequently have become a matter of medical argument. His death certificate stated the cause as tuberculosis. In 2008 an alternative cause of Chopin's death would be proposed: cystic fibrosis. In counterpoint, it can well be argued that survival with cystic fibrosis in the 19th century until the age of 39 was virtually impossible, without modern respiratory therapy and medical support. A full review of the possible causes of Chopin's long illness has recently been published. Given the contextual facts, it is much more likely that Chopin suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis.

Many people who had not been present at Chopin's death would later claim to have been there. "Being present at Chopin's death," writes Tad Szulc, "seemed to grant one historical and social cachet." Those actually around his bed appear to have included his sister Ludwika Jędrzejewicz, Princess Marcelina Czartoryska, Solange and Auguste Clésinger (George Sand's daughter and son-in-law), Chopin's friend and former pupil Adolf Gutmann, his friend Thomas Albrecht, and his confidant, Polish Catholic priest Father Aleksander Jełowicki. Later that morning, Clésinger made Chopin's death mask and a cast of his left hand, to which Chopin had given prominence in his compositions. Before the funeral, pursuant to his dying wish, his heart was removed. It was preserved in alcohol (perhaps brandy) to be returned to his homeland, as he had requested. His sister smuggled it in an urn to Warsaw, where it was later sealed within a pillar of the Holy Cross Church on Krakowskie Przedmieście, beneath an epitaph sculpted by Leonard Marconi, bearing an inscription from ''Matthew'' VI:21: "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Chopin's heart has reposed there – except for a period during World War II, when it was removed for safekeeping – within the church that was rebuilt after its virtual destruction during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. The church stands only a short distance from Chopin's last Polish residence, the Krasiński Palace at Krakowskie Przedmieście 5. The funeral, to be held at the Church of the Madeleine in Paris, was delayed almost two weeks, until 30 October. Chopin had requested that Mozart's ''Requiem'' be sung. The ''Requiem'' had major parts for female voices, but the Church of the Madeleine had never permitted female singers in its choir. The Church finally relented, on condition that the female singers remain behind a black velvet curtain.

The soloists in the ''Requiem'' included the bass Luigi Lablache – who had sung the same work at the funerals of Haydn and Beethoven, and had also sung at Bellini's funeral – and Chopin's and George Sand's friend, the mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot. Also played were Chopin's Préludes No. 4 in E minor and No. 6 in B minor. The organist was Franz Liszt.

The funeral was attended by nearly three thousand people, but George Sand was not among them.

The funeral procession traversed the considerable distance from the church, in the center of town, adjacent to the Opera, to Père Lachaise Cemetery at the city's eastern edge. It was led by the dean of the Polish Great Emigration, the aged Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski; immediately after the casket, which was borne by shifts of artists (including Eugène Delacroix, cellist Auguste Franchomme and pianist Camille Pleyel), walked Chopin's sister Ludwika.

Chopin was interred at Père Lachaise Cemetery, in accordance with his wishes. At the graveside, the ''Funeral March'' from his Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35, was played, in Napoléon Henri Reber's instrumentation.

Chopin's tombstone, featuring the muse of music, Euterpe, weeping over a broken lyre, was designed and sculpted by Auguste Clésinger. The expenses of the funeral and monument, in the amount of five thousand francs, were covered by Jane Stirling, who also paid for Chopin's sister's return to Warsaw. Jane Stirling wore black mourning dresses for a long time thereafter (some sources say for the rest of her life).

Chopin's grave attracts numerous visitors and is consistently decorated with flowers, even in winter.

Memorials

In 1909, to celebrate Chopin's centenary, the Russian composer Sergei Lyapunov wrote a "symphonic poem in memory of Chopin", titled ''Zhelazova Vola'', Op. 37 (), a reference to Chopin's birthplace.

In 1926 a bronze statue of Chopin, designed by sculptor Wacław Szymanowski in 1907, was erected in the upper part of Warsaw's Royal Baths (''Łazienki'') Park, adjacent to Ujazdów Avenue (''Aleje Ujazdowskie''). The statue was originally to have been installed in 1910, on the centenary of Chopin's birth, but its execution was delayed by controversy about the design, then by the outbreak of World War I.

On 31 May 1940, during the German occupation of Poland in World War II, the statue was destroyed by the Nazis. It was reconstructed after the war, in 1958. Since 1959, free piano recitals of Chopin's compositions have been performed at the statue's base on summer Sunday afternoons. The stylized willow over Chopin's seated figure echoes a pianist's hand and fingers. Until 2007, the statue was the world's tallest monument to Chopin.

A 1:1-scale replica of Szymanowski's ''Art Nouveau'' statue is found in Warsaw's sister city of Hamamatsu, Japan. There are also preliminary plans to erect another replica along Chicago's lakefront in addition to a different sculpture commemorating the artist in Chopin Park for the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth.

A bronze bust memorializing Chopin stands at Symphony Circle outside Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo, New York.

There are numerous other monuments to Chopin around the world. The most recent, by a small margin taller than the Warsaw statue, is a modernistic bronze sculpture by Lu Pin in Shanghai, China, that was unveiled on 3 March 2007.

The world's oldest monographic music competition, the International Chopin Piano Competition, founded in 1927, is held every five years in Warsaw.

Established in 1954, the Fryderyk Chopin Museum is housed in Warsaw's Ostrogski Palace, seat of the Fryderyk Chopin Society. Refurbished for the 200th anniversary (2010) of Chopin's birth, the Fryderyk Chopin Museum is the most modern museum in Poland.

Periodically the ''Grand prix du disque de F. Chopin'' is awarded for notable Chopin recordings, both remastered and newly recorded work.

Named for the composer are the largest Polish music conservatory, the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw; Warsaw Chopin Airport; the Chopin crater on Mercury; and asteroid 3784 Chopin.

Music

The great majority of Chopin's compositions were written for the piano as solo instrument; all of his extant works feature the piano in one way or another. Chopin, according to Arthur Hedley, "had the rare gift of a very personal melody, expressive of heart-felt emotion, and his music is penetrated by a poetic feeling that has an almost universal appeal.... Present-day evaluation places him among the immortals of music by reason of his insight into the secret places of the heart and because of his awareness of the magical new sonorities to be drawn from the piano."

It is very difficult to characterise Chopin's oeuvre briefly. Robert Schumann, speaking of Chopin's Sonata in B-flat minor, wrote that "he alone begins and ends a work like this: with dissonances, through dissonances, and in dissonances," and in Chopin's music he discerned "cannon concealed amid blossoms." Franz Liszt, in the opening of his biography about Chopin (Life of Chopin), termed him a "gentle, harmonious genius." Thus disparate have been the views on Chopin's music. The first systematic, if imperfect, study of Chopin's style came in F. P. Laurencin's 1861 ''Die Harmonik der Neuzeit''. Laurencin concluded that "Chopin is one of the most brilliant exceptional natures that have ever stridden onto the stage of history and life, he is one who can never be exhausted nor stand before a void. Chopin is the musical progone of all progones until now."

According to Tad Szulc, though technically demanding, Chopin's works emphasize nuance and expressive depth rather than sheer virtuosity. Vladimir Horowitz referred to Chopin as "the only truly great composer for the piano."

Chopin's music for the piano combined a unique rhythmic sense (particularly his use of rubato), frequent use of chromaticism, and counterpoint. This mixture produces a particularly fragile sound in the melody and the harmony, which are nonetheless underpinned by solid and interesting harmonic techniques. He took the new salon genre of the nocturne, invented by Irish composer John Field, to a deeper level of sophistication. Three of Chopin's twenty-one ''Nocturnes'' were published only after his death in 1849, contrary to his wishes. He also endowed popular dance forms, such as the Polish ''mazurek'' and the Viennese Waltz, with a greater range of melody and expression.

Chopin's mazurkas, while based somewhat on the traditional Polish dance (the ''mazurek''), were different from the traditional variety in that they were suitable for concerts halls as well as dance settings. With his mazurkas, Chopin brought a new sense of nationalism, which was an idea that other composers writing both at the same time as, and after, Chopin would also incorporate into their compositions. Chopin’s nationalism was a great influence and inspiration for many other composers, especially Eastern Europeans, and he was one of the first composers to clearly express nationalism through his music. Furthermore, he was the first composer to take a national genre of music from his home country and transform it into a genre worthy of the general concert-going public, thereby creating an entirely new genre.

Chopin was the first to write ballades and scherzi as individual pieces. He also took the example of Bach's preludes and fugues, transforming the genre in his own Préludes. Chopin reinvented the étude, expanding on the idea and making it into a gorgeous, eloquent and emotional showpiece. He also used his ''Études'' to teach his own revolutionary style, for instance playing with the weak fingers (3, 4, and 5) in fast figures (Op. 10, No. 2), playing in octaves (Op 25, No.10) and playing black keys with the thumb (Op. 10, No. 5).

Influence

Several of Chopin's pieces have become very well known—for instance the ''Revolutionary Étude'' (Op. 10, No. 12), the ''Minute Waltz'' (Op. 64, No. 1), and the third movement of his ''Funeral March'' Sonata No. 2 (Op. 35), which is often used as an iconic representation of grief. Chopin himself never named an instrumental work beyond genre and number, leaving all potential extra-musical associations to the listener; the names by which we know many of the pieces were invented by others. The ''Revolutionary Étude'' was not written with the failed Polish uprising against Russia in mind; it merely appeared at that time. The ''Funeral March'' was written before the rest of the sonata within which it is contained, but the exact occasion is not known; it appears not to have been inspired by any specific personal bereavement. Other melodies have been used as the basis of popular songs, such as the slow section of the ''Fantaisie-Impromptu'' (Op. posth. 66) and the first section of the Étude, Op. 10, No. 3. These pieces often rely on an intense and personalised chromaticism, as well as a melodic curve that resembles the operas of Chopin's day – the operas of Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, and especially Vincenzo Bellini. Chopin used the piano to recreate the gracefulness of the singing voice, and talked and wrote constantly about singers.

Chopin's style and gifts became increasingly influential. Robert Schumann was a huge admirer of Chopin's music, and he used melodies from Chopin and even named a piece from his suite ''Carnaval'' after Chopin. This admiration was not generally reciprocated, although Chopin did dedicate his Ballade No. 2 in F major to Schumann.

Franz Liszt was another admirer and personal friend of the composer, and he transcribed for piano six of Chopin's Polish songs. However, Liszt denied that he wrote ''Funérailles'' (subtitled "October 1849", the seventh movement of his piano suite ''Harmonies poétiques et religieuses'' of 1853) in memory of Chopin. Though the middle section seems to be modeled on the famous octave trio section of Chopin's Polonaise in A flat major, Op. 53, Liszt said the piece had been inspired by the deaths of three of his Hungarian compatriots in the same month. However, Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor borrows heavily from the "funeral march" third movement of Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor. This influence can be seen in the first segment of Liszt's piece: this section expands on Chopin's minimalist melody.

Johannes Brahms and the younger Russian composers, too, found inspiration in Chopin's examples. Chopin's technical innovations became influential. His Préludes (Op. 28) and Études (Opp. 10 and 25) rapidly became standard works, and inspired both Liszt's ''Transcendental Études'' and Schumann's ''Symphonic Studies''. Alexander Scriabin was also strongly influenced by Chopin; for example, his 24 Preludes, Op. 11, are inspired by Chopin's Op. 28.

Jeremy Siepmann, in his biography of the composer, lists pianists whose recordings of Chopin are generally acknowledged to be among the greatest Chopin performances ever preserved: Vladimir de Pachmann, Raoul Pugno, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Moriz Rosenthal, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Alfred Cortot, Ignaz Friedman, Raoul Koczalski, Arthur Rubinstein, Mieczysław Horszowski, Claudio Arrau, Vlado Perlemuter, Vladimir Horowitz, Dinu Lipatti, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Martha Argerich, Maurizio Pollini, Murray Perahia, Krystian Zimerman, Evgeny Kissin.

Arthur Rubinstein said the following about Chopin's music and its universality:

Style

Although Chopin lived in the 19th century, he was educated in the tradition of Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart and Clementi; he used Clementi's piano method with his own students. He was also influenced by Hummel's development of virtuoso, yet Mozartian, piano technique. Chopin cited Bach and Mozart as the two most important composers in shaping his musical outlook.

The series of seven Polonaises published in his lifetime (another nine were published posthumously), beginning with the Op. 26 pair, set a new standard for music in the form, and were rooted in Chopin's desire to write something to celebrate Polish culture after the country had fallen into Russian control. The Polonaise in A major, Op. 40, No. 1, the "Military," and the Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53, the "Heroic," are among Chopin's best-loved and most-often-played works.

Chopin also wrote 24 different preludes as a tribute to J. S. Bach's "The Well Tempered Clavier." Chopin's preludes move up the circle-of-fifths, whereas Bach uses the chromatic scale to create a prelude in every major and minor tonality achievable on the clavier.

Rubato

Chopin's music is well known for benefiting from ''rubato'' (which was how he himself performed his music), as opposed to a strictly regular playing. Yet there is usually call for caution when the music is performed with wobbly, over-exaggerated, ''inappropriate'' "rubato" (e.g. attempting to justify insecure playing, with reference to expressive rubato).

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However, while some can provide restrictive quotes about Chopin such as the above, often to the effect that "the accompanying hand always played in strict tempo", these quotes need to be considered in better context in terms both of the time when they were made and of the situations that may have prompted the original writer to set down the thoughts. Constantin von Sternberg (1852–1924) has written: }}

There are also views of contemporary writers such as Hector Berlioz.

This suggests that Chopin is not to be found at commonly encountered ''one-sided'' extremes. The unbalanced views are:

that Chopin requires metronomic rhythm in the left hand;

that insecure performances of Chopin can be justified with reference to rubato;

that performances with particular inflections, that result from technical limits/insecurities rather than a performer's intentions, can be justified with reference to rubato.

Some performers' (and piano-schools') "too strongly held one-sided views on Chopin's way of playing rubato" may account for some unsatisfactory interpretations of his music.

Romanticism

Chopin is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music.

Chopin regarded most of his contemporaries with indifference, though he had many acquaintances who were associated with romanticism in music, literature, and the fine arts—many of them via his liaison with George Sand. Chopin's music is, however, considered by many to epitomise the Romantic style. The relative classical purity and discretion in his music, with little extravagant exhibitionism, partly reflects his reverence for Bach and Mozart.

Chopin never indulged in explicit "scene-painting" in his music, or used programmatic titles. He castigated publishers who renamed his compositions in this way.

Nationalism

Chopin's Polish biographer Zdzisław Jachimecki notes that "Chopin at every step demonstrated his Polish spirit – in the hundreds of letters that he wrote in Polish, in his attitude to Paris' [Polish] émigrés, in his negative view of all that bore the official stamp of the powers that occupied Poland." Likewise Chopin composed music to accompany Polish texts but never musically illustrated a single French or German text, though he numbered among his friends several great French and German poets.

According to his English biographer Arthur Hedley, Chopin "found within himself and in the tragic story of Poland the chief sources of his inspiration. The theme of Poland's glories and sufferings was constantly before him, and he transmuted the primitive rhythms and melodies of his youth into enduring art forms."

In asserting his own Polishness, Chopin, according to Jachimecki, exerted "a tremendous influence [toward] the nationalization of the work of numerous later composers, who have often personally – like the Czech Smetana and Norway's Grieg – confirmed this opinion..."

The Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, Chopin's contemporary, referred to Chopin's Polish homeland when he wrote that Chopin "may be ranked first among musicians who have had an individual poetic sense of a particular nation." He referred to Chopin as "a Polish artist." Composer Robert Schumann acknowledged the strength of Chopin's personal reaction to Russia's suppression of the November 1830 Uprising when he wrote that in Chopin's music one found "guns buried among the flowers."

Some Polish writers have used, for Chopin's surname, the Polonized phonetic spelling, "''Szopen''" (pronounced ).

Works

Over 230 Chopin works survive; some compositions from early childhood have been lost. All his known works involved the piano. Only a few ranged beyond solo-piano music, as either piano concertos or chamber music.

Chopin composed:

58 mazurkas

27 études (twelve in the Op. 10 cycle, twelve in the Op. 25 cycle, and three in a collection without an opus number)

27 preludes

21 nocturnes

20 waltzes

18 polonaises, including one with orchestral accompaniment and one for cello and piano accompaniment

5 rondos

4 ballades

4 impromptus

4 scherzi

4 sets of variations, including ''Souvenir de Paganini''

3 écossaises

3 piano sonatas

2 concerti for piano and orchestra, Op. 11 and 21

He also composed: a fantaisie, an ''Allegro de concert'' (which is possibly the remnant of an incomplete concerto), a barcarole, a berceuse, a bolero, a tarantelle, a contredanse, a fugue, a cantabile, a lento, a Funeral march, and a ''Feuille d'album''.

Chopin's other works include: a krakowiak for piano and orchestra; ''Variations on "Là ci darem la mano"'' for piano and orchestra; fantasia on themes from Polish songs with accompanying orchestra; a trio for violin, cello and piano; a sonata for cello and piano; a ''Grand Duo in E major'' for cello and piano on themes from Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera ''Robert le diable'', co-written with Auguste Franchomme; and 19 Polish songs for voice and piano.

Opus numbers

The last opus number that Chopin himself used was 65, allocated to the Cello Sonata in G minor.

Chopin expressed a deathbed wish that all his unpublished manuscripts be destroyed. However, at the request of the composer's mother and sisters, his pianist friend and musical executor Julian Fontana selected 23 unpublished piano pieces and grouped them into eight opus numbers (Opp. 66–73). These works were published in 1855.

In 1857, 17 Polish songs which Chopin wrote at various stages of his life were collected and published as Op. 74—the order within that opus having little regard to the actual order of composition. Two other songs were published in 1910.

Works that have been published since 1857 have not received opus numbers. Instead, alternate catalog designations have been applied to them.

Publishing

Chopin published much of his music simultaneously in Germany, France, and England. While this certainly earned the composer triple exposure and likely a good sum of revenue, the discrepancies between these three (or more) editions can be quite the conundrum. Ever the romantic, Chopin lived in a constant state of inspiration and improvisation, and was certainly prone to editing and revising his own music even after sending final drafts to his publishers. Especially considering that all published editions of his work during his lifetime were in fact proofed and approved by the composer himself, this is a popular source of anxiety amongst pianists and scholars.

How is one to know what the composer truly meant and wanted when we are presented with autographs and first drafts bearing the composer’s approval that differ in content? Details such as phrase markings, dynamics, fingerings, even the notes themselves are often subject to suspicion. The several editions of the time had different ways of dealing with this problem; the Germans of course believed that their version was infallible, the French called Chopin their own, having spent most of his adult life based in Paris, and the English publisher (a German who largely copied the French editions) annoyed Chopin by insisting on adding flowery titles to his pieces. Nearly 200 years later, the state of affairs in regards to Chopin editions has turned over a new leaf.

Today, several scholarly editions exist that attempt to organize the vast array of sources and compile the information in one presentable volume, notably the Paderewski and Polish National editions which contain lengthy and scholarly explanations and discussions regarding choices and sources. Even so, it is ultimately up to the taste of an editor as to which version of which piece suits them most at the given time, and perhaps Chopin himself faced the same dilemma, resulting in the variations we have today.

TV documentaries

In 2010, the 90-min. BBC TV documentary ''Chopin – The Women Behind The Music'' explores Chopin's life, notably his encounters with the singers who enchanted the composer with their voices. The BBC announcement for the premiere refers to Jenny Lind as the "Swedish opera star, who so affected Chopin in the final years of his life." Another documentary about Chopin was realized by Angelo Bozzolini and Roberto Prosseda for Italian Television in 2010: "Fryderik Chopin". Featuring interviews with Martha Argerich, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Charles Rosen, it is currently distributed by Euroarts.

Fiction

Possibly the first venture into fictional treatments of Chopin's life was a fanciful operatic version of some of its events. This opera, entitled ''Chopin'', was written by Giacomo Orefice and produced in Milan in 1901. Orefice incorporated Chopin's music, arranged as arias; the operatic arrangements have been described as "coarse". Various arias have been recorded by well-known singers, but the opera has long been out of the repertoire. Orefice also applied an operatic treatment to one of George Sand's novels, ''Consuelo''.

Chopin's life and his relations with George Sand have been fictionalized in film. The 1945 biopic ''A Song to Remember'' earned Cornel Wilde an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor for his portrayal of the composer. Other film treatments have included: ''Impromptu'' (1991), starring Hugh Grant as Chopin; ''La note bleue'' (1991); and ''Chopin: Desire for Love'' (2002). The 1975 Ken Russell film ''Lisztomania'' outlandishly portrayed Chopin and Sand's relationship as dominant and submissive, with Sand fulfilling the role of dominatrix over Chopin's submissive attitude.

Another reference to Chopin in cinema occurs in Ingmar Bergman's ''Autumn Sonata''. The difference of interpretation of Chopin's Prelude No. 2 in A minor by the pianist Charlotte Andergast and her daughter Eva constitutes a major scene in the film.

Kate Beaton did a series of comics starring Chopin and Liszt, focusing on a fictionalized account of their friendship.

Chopin is the main character in the console role-playing game titled Eternal Sonata.

See also

Cyprian Norwid

Maria Kalergis

''Salon Frédéric Chopin'' in Paris

Toruń gingerbread (young Chopin's enthusiasm for the Polish confection).

Chopin's disease

List of Poles

Notes

Bibliography

Tad Szulc, ''Chopin in Paris: the Life and Times of the Romantic Composer'', New York, Scribner, 1998, ISBN 0-684-82458-2.

Zdzisław Jachimecki, "Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek," ''Polski słownik biograficzny'', vol. III, Kraków, Polska Akademia Umiejętności, 1937, pp. 420–26.

Arthur Hedley ''et al.'', "Chopin, Frédéric (François)," ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 15th ed., 2005, vol. 3, pp. 263–64.

Édouard Ganche, ''Frédéric Chopin: sa vie et ses œuvres'' (Frédéric Chopin: His Life and Works), Mercure de France, 1913.

Gastone Belotti, ''Chopin, l'uomo'' (Chopin the Man), 3 vols., Milan, Sapere, 1974.

Gastone Belotti, ''Chopin'', Turin, EDT, 1984, ISBN 88-7063-033-1.

Gerald Abraham, "Chopin Frédéric," ''Encyclopedia Americana'', 1986 ed., vol. 6, pp. 627–28.

Adam Zamoyski, ''Chopin: a Biography'', New York, Doubleday, 1980, ISBN 0-385-13597-1.

Michałowski, Kornel, and Jim Samson, ''Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek'', Grove Music Online, edited by L. Macy (accessed 31 October 2006) (subscription access)

Benita Eisler, ''Chopin's Funeral'', Abacus, 2004.

''[The Book of the Second International Musicological Congress, Warsaw, 10–17 October 1999:] Chopin and His Work in the Context of Culture'', studies edited by Irena Poniatowska, vols. 1–2, Warsaw, 2003.

Samson, Jim. ''The Cambridge Companion to Chopin.'' New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, ''Chopin: Pianist and Teacher, as Seen by His Pupils'', Cambridge University Press, 1989, ISBN 0-521-36709-3.

Samson, Jim. ''The Music of Chopin.'' Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985.

André Maurois, ''Leila: the Life of George Sand'', translated by Gerard Hopkins, Penguin, 1980 (c 1953).

Jan Zygmunt Jakubowski, ed., ''Literatura polska od średniowiecza to pozytywizmu'' (Polish Literature from the Middle Ages to Positivism), Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1979, ISBN 83-01-00201-8.

George Richard Marek and Maria Gordon-Smith, ''Chopin: A Biography'', New York, Harper & Row, 1978.

''Chopin's Letters'', collected by Henryk Opieński, translated by E.L. Voynich, New York, 1973.

''The Book of the First International Musicological Congress Devoted [to] the Works of Frederick Chopin, Warsaw, 16–22 February 1960'', edited by Zofia Lissa, Warsaw, PWN, 1963.

''Selected Correspondence of Fryderyk Chopin'', collected and annotated by B.E. Sydow, translated and edited by Arthur Hedley, London, 1962.

Krystyna Kobylańska, ''Chopin in His Own Land: Documents and Souvenirs'', Kraków, P.W.M., 1955.

David Ewen, ''Ewen's Musical Masterworks: The Encyclopedia of Musical Masterpieces'', 2nd ed., New York, ARCO Publishing Company, 1954.

Artur Szklener, "''Fryckowe lato: czyli wakacyjne muzykowanie Chopina''" ("Fritz's Summers: Chopin's Musical Vacations"), ''Magazyn Chopin: Miesięcznik Narodowego Instytutu Fryderyka Chopina'' (Chopin Magazine: Monthly of the Fryderyk Chopin National Institute), no. 4, 2010, pp. 8–9.

Maria Barcz, "''Etiuda paryska''" ("Paris Étude"), ''Gwiazda Polarna'' (The Pole Star), vol. 101, no. 17 (14 August 2010), pp. 15–16.

Chopin and Other Musical Essays (1889) by Henry T. Finck

Jeffrey Kallberg, “Chopin in the Marketplace: Aspects of the International Music Publishing Industry in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century,” Notes 39, no. 3 (March 1983): 539.

Kazimierz Wierzyński, ''The Life and Death of Chopin'', translated from the Polish by Norbert Guterman, foreword by Arthur Rubinstein, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1949.

External links

''Klasikal.com'', Website dedicated to classical music. Includes video performances and sheet music of every composition of Frédéric Chopin.

''The Chopin Project'', A guide to Chopin's solo keyboard music, with individual entries, on-demand audio, essays, quotes, references, biographies, and abundant links.

''The Chopin Society'', The website of the Chopin Society in London provides information about their monthly concerts, membership of the Society, and offers insights into the life of the composer.

''Chopin Music'', Website and forum devoted to the life and works of Chopin: biographies, study guides, recordings, sheet music.

''Chopin: the poet of the piano'', A favourite Chopin place since 1999 with biography, images, complete music and score, discussion forum, work list and analysis, quizzes and contests, noted interpreters/great pianists...

''Internet Chopin Information Centre'', Chopin portal including calendar, catalogues, other information about Chopin, Chopin on the Web, and pianists' biographical notes.

''Chopin.pl'', website under the auspices of Warsaw-based Fryderyk Chopin Society. Contains a biography, an outline of Chopin's works and musical style and pictures of original manuscripts.

''Bachtrack.com'', Listings of live concerts of Chopin's music at Bachtrack, also see anniversary page at

''Frédéric Chopin and Samuel Barber'', ArtsEditor.com opinion article 2010: Certain composers are so ubiquitous that to celebrate them seems unnecessary, especially as many others languish in relative obscurity. Still, every few years the public is reminded of the anniversary of a particular composer's birth, prompting a slew…

Biographies

Biography of Chopin at Fryderyk Chopin Society's website

Frédéric Chopin biography

Brief Chopin essay at ''Classical Music Pages''

Biographies (Project Gutenberg e-texts):

*''Life of Chopin'', book by his friend Franz Liszt

*''Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician'', by Frederick Niecks

*''Chopin: The Man and his Music'', by James Huneker

Music scores

Chopin scores from Mutopia Project

''Chopin Early Editions'', a collection of over 400 first and early printed editions of musical compositions by Frédéric Chopin published before 1881.

''Chopin's First Editions Online'' features an interface that allows three navigable scores to be open simultaneously in frames to facilitate comparison.

Recordings

Performances by Angela Lear: 'The Chopin Collection' volumes 1–5, include rarely-heard original variants.

www.200chopin.com, Recordings by all Deutsche Grammophon and Decca artists, full track streaming for free: Argerich, Freire, Pollini, Zimerman, Pires, Wang, Ott etc.

Performances by Daniel Wnukowski: 'Heroic' polonaise, 2 nocturnes, 1 scherzo, 1 prelude

Performances by Michael Sayers: Preludes Op. 28 Nos. 1 and 20

Performances by Donald Betts: 3 ballades, 3 études, 2 nocturnes, 1 mazurka

Performances by Paul Cantrell from In the Hands

Performances by Alberto Cobo: Sonata No. 3, Ballade No. 1 and Fantasie-Impromptu, Sonata No. 2, Scherzo No. 2, Prelude No. 16

Various performers from PianoParadise (some links are broken)

MIDI files from Kunst der Fuge

Preludes No. 4 and No. 6 arranged for voices, guitar, and bass by the John Link Project

Performances of works by Frédéric Chopin in MP3 and MIDI formats at Logos Virtual Library

Free Chopin Downloads (MP3 and WMA)

the original Chopin Chopin as played by Angela Lear from autograph manuscripts. ''"Hear what Chopin really intended"'' BBC Music Magazine; ''"...Her Chopin recitals were altogether exceptional for perfect interpretation and maximum faithfulness to Chopin's intentions'' " Le Matin.

Chopin selected works (MP3)

Piano Society – A short biography and some free recordings in MP3 format, performed by Chiara Bertoglio, Roberto Carnevale, Eric Clark, Alexander Djordjevic, Ken Sasaki, Robert Ståhlbrand, Evelina Vorontsova

Miscellaneous

Chopin With A Polish Touch, audio report by National Public Radio

Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina, Warsaw, Poland

Memorial Page at FindaGrave

University of Michigan Chopin Project

Chopin Works Review

International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition

Chopin2010 a/k/a "The Chopin Currency", a daily compendium of Chopiniana: news, reviews, videos, blogs, and more leading up to the Chopin Bicentennial in 2010

Valldemossa, Majorca small town whose major asset is the remains of The Royal Chartreuse of Jesus Nazareth where Chopin lived for a short period with George Sand (the memories of this period are recorded in her book ''Winter in Majorca'') in 1838/1839.

The International Foundation Can Mossenya – Friends of Jorge Luis Borges, Historic estate, a significant part of The Royal Chartreuse of Jesus of Nazareth

The safekeeping of a large collection of original Chopin manuscripts, including Concerto in F-minor among a total of 49 compositions and other priceless Polish art treasures in Canada during World War II, is documented by new research in 2004–2005 which was published in ''Chopin in the World''.

Category:1810 births Category:1849 deaths Category:Polish classical pianists Category:Polish composers Category:French composers Category:Romantic composers Category:19th-century composers Category:Child classical musicians Category:French music educators Category:University of Warsaw alumni Category:Activists of the Great Emigration Category:Polish expatriates in France Category:Polish people of French descent Category:Polish Roman Catholics Category:People from Sochaczew County Category:People from Warsaw Category:19th-century Polish people Category:Infectious disease deaths in France Category:Deaths from tuberculosis Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery

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playername	Saeed Ajmal
country	Pakistan
fullname	Saeed Ajmal
living	true
dayofbirth	14
monthofbirth	10
yearofbirth	1977
placeofbirth	Faisalabad, Punjab
countryofbirth	Pakistan
batting	Right-handed
bowling	Right-arm off break
role	Bowler
international	true
testdebutdate	4 July
testdebutyear	2009
testdebutagainst	Sri Lanka
testcap	195
lasttestdate	24 May
lasttestyear	2011
lasttestagainst	West Indies
odidebutdate	2 July
odidebutyear	2008
odidebutagainst	India
odicap	171
lastodidate	30 May
lastodiyear	2011
lastodiagainst	Ireland
club1	Faisalabad
year1	1996–2007
club2	Khan Research Laboratories
year2	2000–07
club3	Islamabad
year3	2001–02
columns	4
column1	Test
matches1	11
runs1	125
bat avg1	11.36
100s/50s1	0/1
top score1	50
deliveries1	3,447
wickets1	50
bowl avg1	31.14
fivefor1	3
tenfor1	1
best bowling1	6/42
catches/stumpings1	2/–
column2	ODI
matches2	45
runs2	126
bat avg2	7.87
100s/50s2	0/0
top score2	33
deliveries2	2,290
wickets2	62
bowl avg2	25.85
fivefor2	0
tenfor2	0
best bowling2	4/33
catches/stumpings2	8/–
column3	FC
matches3	97
runs3	1,078
bat avg3	12.25
100s/50s3	0/3
top score3	53
deliveries3	20,160
wickets3	336
bowl avg3	27.58
fivefor3	22
tenfor3	2
best bowling3	7/63
catches/stumpings3	30/–
column4	LA
matches4	147
runs4	323
bat avg4	7.51
100s/50s4	0/0
top score4	33
deliveries4	7,561
wickets4	215
bowl avg4	26.06
fivefor4	1
tenfor4	0
best bowling4	5/18
catches/stumpings4	34/–
date	30 August
year	2011
source	http://www.cricinfo.com/pakistan/content/player/42699.html Cricinfo }}

Saeed Ajmal (}}, born 14 October 1977 in Faisalabad) is a Pakistani cricketer. He is a right-arm off-spin bowler who also uses the Doosra to good effect.

Early life and domestic cricket

Ajmal has played for Faisalabad since his debut in 1995 at the age of 18, also representing Khan Research Laboratories and occasionally Islamabad. After a successful season in 2007–08 for Khan Research Laboratories, he was named in Pakistan's squad for the 2008 Asia Cup.

International career

He made his debut against India, taking the wicket of Yusuf Pathan in an eight-wicket before taking two wickets in a ten-wicket victory over Bangladesh, although the team had no chance of progressing to the competition's final.

From there he has had a rapid rise in the team in just over a full year. He had an excellent time at the 2009 ICC World Twenty20, bowling at an economical rate and regularly taking wickets along with his spin partner Shahid Afridi. He was then picked for the Sri Lankan series in Sri Lanka where he had made solid performances in the Test matches, being picked ahead of Danish Kaneria in two of the matches.

Ajmal's good form continued in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 as he was Pakistan's leading wicket taker. However despite his good form he was known for conceding three sixes to Michael Hussey in what has been hailed as the most thrilling Twenty20 match of all time as Australia were in trouble and Ajmal was the unfortunate bowler who bowled that final over.

Shortly after this the Pakistan team began there long tour of England and in the two Test matches played against Australia spinner Danish Kaneria was selected ahead of him. In the 1st Test against England Kaneria was selected ahead of Ajmal as well. However after poor bowling by Kaneria, Ajmal was selected and he took his career best bowling figures of 5/82 Despite Pakistan restricting England the team suffered a top order collapse and Zulqarnain Haider scored 88 and Ajmal also showed that he has the abiltiy to bat when he scored 50 runs these two men helped Pakistan lead a revival after being bowled out for 72 on the first day. Along with Zulqarnain Haider they together continued to frustrate the England and when it was stumps on day three Pakistan had a 112-run lead however Zulqarnain Haider and Ajmal were out on 88 and 50 respectively and so Pakistan were left on the final wicket with Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul. During the series against England Pakistan became englufed in a spot fixing scandal after the fourth test and in a later secret interview it was unveiled by alleged fixer Mazhar Majeed that Ajmal, Abdul Razzaq, Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi were difficult to bribe. He stated that Ajmal was too religious to get involved into fixing.

Skills in the art of spin

Saeed is hailed as the finest off spinner at present.Darren Sammy ranked him as much much better bowler than Harbhajan Singh.Ajmal is known as an excellent spinner of the ball and strong especially against left-handers. He has a well disguised doosra and keeps it as a mystery while he bowls. His technique is noted for causing more spin than speed as that is what Ajmal prefers Which in a sense is similar to Danish Kaneria who likes to bowl slow spin but Kaneria has a different case as when he picks up more speed he tends to loose the spin of the ball. When Pakistan started there tour of England in 2010 former Pakistani off-spinner and the founder of the doosra, Saqlain Mushtaq had a coaching session with Ajmal to advise him on his spin techniques Ajmal's spin technique came in special hand against England in 2010 has he took his first 5-wicket haul to help restrict England. Kevin Pietersen congratulated Ajmal on the amount of spin he achieved. Ajmal though started his international cricket in limited-overs cricket and was one of the early off-spinners to possess the skills of the doosra. A stat shows that out of Ajmal's 38 wickets in Twenty20 cricket 13 of them have been stumped the most for any bowler in the game. Also it was of Ajmal's off-break that Zulqarnain Haider collected his maiden international stumping.

In 2009, University of Western Australia test indicated that his arm is 8.5° tilted due to accident and 23.5° bowling action is allowed for him. Saeed Ajmal also said in an interview that he had learned the doosra on his own and that the rated Saqlain Mushtaq as the best off-spinner ever and rated Muttiah Muralitharan in second-place. He also stated that Muralitharan was a very nice and down to earth person. Ajmal said that he planned to introduce a new delivery at the 2011 Cricket World Cup

Bowling

Test Cricket 10-wicket in match

{|class="wikitable" align="center" ! width="40"|# !! width="50"|Figures !! width="50"|Match !! width="100"|Against !! width="150"|City/Country !! width="200"|Venue !! width="50"|Year |- | 1 || 11/111 || 10 || || Providence, Guyana || Providence || 2011 |}

Test Cricket 5-wicket in an innings

{|class="wikitable" align="center" ! width="40"|# !! width="50"|Figures !! width="50"|Match !! width="100"|Against !! width="150"|City/Country !! width="200"|Venue !! width="50"|Year |- | 1 || 5/82 || 6 || || Birmingham, England || Edgbaston || 2010 |- | 2 || 5/69 || 10 || || Providence, Guyana || Providence || 2011 |- | 3 || 6/42 || 10 || || Providence, Guyana || Providence || 2011 |}

Batting

Test Cricket International Fifties

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 100%" align="center" width:"100%"

!colspan=7|Test Half Centuries of Saeed Ajmal |- ! width="40"|# !! width="50"|Runs !! width="50"|Match !! width="100"|Against !! width="150"|City/Country !! width="200"|Venue !! width="50"|Year |- | 1 || 50 || 6 || || Birmingham, England || Edgbaston || 2010 |}

References

External links

Category:1977 births Category:Living people Category:People from Faisalabad Category:Pakistan Test cricketers Category:Pakistan One Day International cricketers Category:Pakistan Twenty20 International cricketers Category:Faisalabad cricketers Category:Islamabad cricketers Category:Khan Research Labs cricketers Category:Water and Power Development Authority cricketers Category:Cricketers at the 2011 Cricket World Cup

mr:सईद अजमल ur:سعید اجمل

name	Al Pacino
birth name	Alfredo James Pacino
birth date	April 25, 1940
birth place	New York City
occupation	Actor, director, screenwriter, producer
years active	1968–present
children	2 daughters, 1 son }}

Alfredo James "Al" Pacino (; born April 25, 1940) is an American film and stage actor and director. He is famous for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in ''The Godfather'' trilogy, Tony Montana in ''Scarface'', Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in ''Dick Tracy'' and Carlito Brigante in ''Carlito's Way'', though he has also appeared several times on the other side of the law — as a police officer, detective and a lawyer. His role as Frank Slade in ''Scent of a Woman'' won him the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1992 after receiving seven previous Oscar nominations.

He made his feature film debut in the 1969 film ''Me, Natalie'' in a minor supporting role, before playing the leading role in the 1971 drama ''The Panic in Needle Park''. Pacino made his major breakthrough when he was given the role of Michael Corleone in ''The Godfather'' in 1972, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Other Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor were for ''Dick Tracy'' and ''Glengarry Glen Ross''. Oscar nominations for Best Actor include ''The Godfather Part II'', ''Serpico'', ''Dog Day Afternoon'', ''...And Justice for All'' and ''Scent of a Woman''.

In addition to a career in film, he has also enjoyed a successful career on stage, picking up Tony Awards for ''Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?'' and ''The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel''. A longtime fan of Shakespeare, he made his directorial debut with ''Looking for Richard'', a quasi-documentary on the play ''Richard III''. Pacino has received numerous lifetime achievement awards, including one from the American Film Institute. He is a method actor, taught mainly by Lee Strasberg and Charles Laughton at the Actors Studio in New York.

Although he has never married, Pacino has had several relationships with actresses and has three children.

Early life and education

Pacino was born in East Harlem, New York City to Italian American parents Rose and Salvatore Pacino, who divorced when he was two years old. When he was two, his mother moved to the South Bronx near the Bronx Zoo, to live with her parents, Kate and James Gerardi, who originated from Corleone, Sicily. His father moved to Covina, California, and worked as an insurance salesman and restaurateur. Pacino attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in New York. During his teenage years 'Sonny', as he was known to his friends, aimed to become a baseball player, though he was also nicknamed 'The Actor'. Pacino flunked nearly all of his classes except English and dropped out of school at 17. His mother disagreed with his decision; they had an argument and he left home. He worked at a string of low-paying jobs, including messenger boy, busboy, janitor, and postal clerk, in order to finance his acting studies.

He started smoking at age nine, drinking and casual marijuana use at age thirteen, but never took hard drugs. His two closest friends died young of drug abuse at the ages of 19 and 30. Growing up in the Bronx, he got into occasional fights and was something of a troublemaker at school.

He acted in basement plays in New York's theatrical underground but was rejected for the Actors Studio while still a teenager. Pacino then joined the Herbert Berghof Studio (HB Studio), where he met acting teacher Charlie Laughton, who became his mentor and best friend. During this period, he was frequently unemployed and homeless, and sometimes had to sleep on the street, in theaters, or at friends' houses. In 1962, his mother died at the age of 43. The following year, his grandfather, James Gerardi, one of the most influential people in his life, also died.

Actors Studio training

After having spent four years at HB Studio, Pacino successfully auditioned for the Actors Studio. The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Pacino studied "method acting" under acting coach Lee Strasberg, who later appeared with Pacino in the films ''The Godfather Part II'' and in ''...And Justice for All''. During later interviews he spoke about Strasberg and the Studio's effect on his career. "The Actors Studio meant so much to me in my life. Lee Strasberg hasn’t been given the credit he deserves ... Next to Charlie, it sort of launched me. It really did. That was a remarkable turning point in my life. It was directly responsible for getting me to quit all those jobs and just stay acting." During another interview he added, "It was exciting to work for him [Lee Strasberg] because he was so interesting when he talked about a scene or talked about people. One would just want to hear him talk, because things he would say, you’d never heard before ... He had such a great understanding... he loved actors so much."

Pacino is currently co-president, along with Ellen Burstyn and Harvey Keitel, of the Actors Studio.

Stage career

In 1967, Pacino spent a season at the Charles Playhouse in Boston, performing in Clifford Odets' ''Awake and Sing!'' (his first major paycheck: $125 a week); and in Jean-Claude Van Itallie's ''America, Hurrah'', where he met actress Jill Clayburgh while working on this play. They went on to have a five-year romance and moved together back to New York City.

In 1968, Pacino starred in Israel Horovitz's ''The Indian Wants the Bronx'' at the Astor Place Theater, playing Murph, a street punk. The play opened January 17, 1968, and ran for 177 performances; it was staged in a double bill with Horovitz's ''It's Called the Sugar Plum'', starring Clayburgh. Pacino won an Obie Award for Best Actor for his role, with John Cazale winning for Best Supporting actor and Horowitz for Best New Play. Martin Bregman saw the play and offered to be Pacino's manager, a partnership that became fruitful in the years to come, as Bregman encouraged Pacino to do ''The Godfather'', ''Serpico'' and ''Dog Day Afternoon''. Pacino and this production of ''The Indian Wants the Bronx'' traveled to Italy for a performance at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto. It was Pacino's first journey to Italy; he later recalled that "performing for an Italian audience was a marvelous experience". Pacino and Clayburgh were cast in "Deadly Circle of Violence", an episode of the ABC television series ''N.Y.P.D.'', premiering November 12, 1968. Clayburgh at the time was also appearing on the soap opera ''Search for Tomorrow'', playing the role of Grace Bolton. Her father would send the couple money each month to help.

On February 25, 1969, Pacino made his Broadway debut in Don Petersen's ''Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?'' at the Belasco Theater. It closed after 39 performances on March 29, 1969, but Pacino received rave reviews and won the Tony Award on April 20, 1969. Pacino continued performing onstage in the 1970s, winning a second Tony Award for ''The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel'' and performing the title role in ''Richard III''. In 1980s Pacino again achieved critical success on the stage while appearing in David Mamet's ''American Buffalo,'' for which Pacino was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. Since 1990 Pacino's stage work has included revivals of Eugene O'Neill's ''Hughie'', Oscar Wilde's ''Salome'' and in 2005 Lyle Kessler's ''Orphans''.

Pacino made his return to the stage in summer 2010, as Shylock in a Shakespeare in the Park production of ''The Merchant of Venice''. The acclaimed production transferred to Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre in October, earning US$1 million at the box office in its first week. The performance also garnered him a Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Play.

Film career

Early film career

Pacino found acting to be enjoyable and realized he had a gift for it while studying at The Actors Studio. However, his early work was not financially rewarding. After his success on stage, Pacino made his movie debut in 1969 with a brief screen appearance in ''Me, Natalie'', an independent film starring Patty Duke. In 1970, Pacino signed with the talent agency Creative Management Associates (CMA).

1970s

It was the 1971 film ''The Panic in Needle Park'', in which he played a heroin addict, that brought Pacino to the attention of director Francis Ford Coppola, who cast him as Michael Corleone in the blockbuster Mafia film ''The Godfather'' (1972). Although several established actors – including Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, and then little-known Robert De Niro – also tried out for the part, Coppola selected the relatively unknown Pacino, much to the dismay of studio executives. He was even teased on the set because his short stature. Pacino's performance earned him an Academy Award nomination, and offered a prime example of his early acting style, described by Halliwell's Film Guide as "intense" and "tightly clenched". Pacino boycotted the Academy Award ceremony, as he was insulted at being nominated for the Supporting Acting award, noting that he had more screen time than costar and Best Actor winner Marlon Brando – who was himself boycotting the awards.

In 1973, he co-starred in ''Scarecrow'', with Gene Hackman, and won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. That same year Pacino was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor after starring in ''Serpico'', based on the true story of New York City policeman Frank Serpico, who went undercover to expose the corruption of fellow officers. In 1975, he enjoyed further success with the release of ''Dog Day Afternoon'', based on the true story of bank robber John Wojtowicz. It was directed by Sidney Lumet, who also directed him in ''Serpico'' a few years earlier, and Pacino was again nominated for Best Actor.

In 1977, Pacino starred as a race-car driver in ''Bobby Deerfield'', directed by Sydney Pollack, and received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture Actor – Drama for his portrayal of the title role, losing out to Richard Burton, who won for ''Equus''. His next film was the courtroom drama ''...And Justice for All'', which again saw Pacino lauded by critics for his wide range of acting abilities, and nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for a fourth time. and the comedy-drama ''Author! Author!'' were critically panned. However, 1983's ''Scarface'', directed by Brian De Palma, proved to be a career highlight and a defining role. Upon its initial release, the film was critically panned, but did fairly well at the box office, grossing over US$45 million domestically. Pacino earned a Golden Globe nomination for his role as Cuban drug lord Tony Montana.

In 1985, Pacino worked on his personal project, ''The Local Stigmatic'', a 1969 Off Broadway play by the English writer Heathcote Williams. He starred in the play, remounting it with director David Wheeler and the Theater Company of Boston in a 50-minute film version. The film was never released theatrically but was later released as part of the ''Pacino: An Actor's Vision'' box set in 2007.

His 1985 film ''Revolution'' about a fur trapper during the American Revolutionary War, was a commercial and critical failure, which Pacino blamed on a rushed production, resulting in a four-year hiatus from films. During this time Pacino returned to the stage. He mounted workshop productions of ''Crystal Clear'', ''National Anthems'' and other plays; he appeared in ''Julius Caesar'' in 1988 in producer Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival. Pacino remarked on his hiatus from film: "I remember back when everything was happening, '74, '75, doing ''The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui'' on stage and reading that the reason I'd gone back to the stage was that my movie career was waning! That's been the kind of ethos, the way in which theater's perceived, unfortunately." Pacino returned to film in 1989's ''Sea of Love'', in which he portrayed a detective hunting a serial killer who finds victims through the singles column in a newspaper. The film earned solid reviews.

1990s

Pacino received an Academy Award nomination for playing Big Boy Caprice in the box office hit ''Dick Tracy'' in 1990, in which critic Roger Ebert wrote that Pacino is "the scene-stealer". Later in the year he followed this up by a return to one of his most famous characters, Michael Corleone, in ''The Godfather Part III'' (1990). The film received mixed reviews, and had problems during pre-production due to script rewrites and the withdrawal of actors shortly before production. In 1991, Pacino starred in ''Frankie and Johnny'' with Michelle Pfeiffer, who co-starred with Pacino in ''Scarface''. Pacino portrays a recently paroled cook who begins a relationship with a waitress (Pfeiffer) in the diner he works in. It was adapted by Terrence McNally from his own Off-Broadway play ''Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune'' (1987), which featured Kenneth Welsh and Kathy Bates. The film received mixed reviews, although Pacino later said he enjoyed playing the part. Janet Maslin in ''The New York Times'' wrote, "Mr. Pacino has not been this uncomplicatedly appealing since his "Dog Day Afternoon" days, and he makes Johnny's endless enterprise in wooing Frankie a delight. His scenes alone with Ms. Pfeiffer have a precision and honesty that keep the film's maudlin aspects at bay."

In 1992, Pacino won the Academy Award for Best Actor, for his portrayal of the blind U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade in Martin Brest's ''Scent of a Woman''. That year, he was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor for ''Glengarry Glen Ross'', making Pacino the first male actor ever to receive two acting nominations for two different movies in the same year, and to win for the lead role.

Pacino starred alongside Sean Penn in the crime dramas ''Carlito's Way'' in 1993, in which he portrayed a gangster who is released from prison with the help of his lawyer (Penn) and vows to go straight. Pacino starred in Michael Mann's ''Heat'' (1995), in which he and Robert De Niro appeared on-screen together for the first time (though both Pacino and De Niro starred in ''The Godfather Part II'', they did not share any scenes).

In 1996, Pacino starred in his theatrical docudrama ''Looking for Richard'', which is both a performance of selected scenes of William Shakespeare's ''Richard III'' and a broader examination of Shakespeare's continuing role and relevance in popular culture. The cast brought together for the performance included Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey and Winona Ryder. Pacino played Satan in the supernatural thriller ''The Devil's Advocate'' (1997) which co-starred Keanu Reaves. The film was a success at the box office, taking US$150 million worldwide. Roger Ebert wrote in the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', ‘The satanic character is played by Pacino with relish bordering on glee.’ In ''Donnie Brasco'' Pacino played mafia gangster "Lefty", in the true story of undercover FBI agent Donnie Brasco (Johnny Depp) and his work in bringing down the mafia from the inside. Pacino also starred as real life ''60 Minutes'' producer Lowell Bergman in the multi-Oscar nominated ''The Insider'' opposite Russell Crowe, before starring in Oliver Stone's ''Any Given Sunday'' in 1999.

2000s

Pacino has not received another nomination from the Academy since ''Scent of a Woman'', but won two Golden Globes since the year 2000, the first being the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2001 for lifetime achievement in motion pictures.

In 2000, Pacino released a low budget film adaptation of Ira Lewis' play ''Chinese Coffee'' to film festivals. Shot almost exclusively as a one-on-one conversation between the two main characters, the project took almost three years to complete and it was funded entirely by Pacino. ''Chinese Coffee'' was included along with Pacino's two other rare films he has been involved in producing, ''The Local Stigmatic'' and ''Looking for Richard'', on a special DVD boxset titled ''Pacino: An Actor's Vision'' which was released in 2007. Pacino produced prologues and epilogues for the discs containing the films.

Pacino turned down an offer to reprise his role as Michael Corleone in the computer game version of ''The Godfather''. As a result, Electronic Arts was not permitted to use Pacino's likeness or voice in the game, although his character does appear in it. He did allow his likeness to appear in the video game adaptation of the remake of 1983's ''Scarface'', titled ''Scarface: The World is Yours''.

Director Christopher Nolan worked with Pacino for ''Insomnia'', a remake of the Norwegian film of the same name, co-starring Robin Williams. ''Newsweek'' stated that "he [Pacino] can play small as rivetingly as he can play big, that he can implode as well as explode". The film and Pacino's performance were well-received, gaining a favorable rating of 92 percent on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. The film did moderately well at the box office, taking in $113 million dollars worldwide. His next film, ''S1m0ne'', was one that Pacino liked, but which did not gain much critical praise or box office success.

He played the part of a publicist in ''People I Know'', a small film that received little attention despite Pacino's well-received performance. Rarely taking a supporting role since his commercial breakthrough, he accepted a small part in the box office flop ''Gigli'' in 2003 as a favor to director Martin Brest. and was described by Pacino as something he "personally couldn't follow".

Pacino starred as Shylock in Michael Radford's 2004 film adaptation of ''The Merchant of Venice'', choosing to bring compassion and depth to a character traditionally played as a villainous caricature. In ''Two for the Money'', Pacino portrays a sports gambling agent and mentor for Matthew McConaughey, alongside Rene Russo. The film was released on October 8, 2005 and received mixed reviews. Desson Thomson wrote in ''The Washington Post'', "Al Pacino has played the mentor so many times, he ought to get a kingmaker's award (...) the fight between good and evil feels fixed in favor of Hollywood redemption."

On October 20, 2006, the American Film Institute named Pacino the recipient of the 35th AFI Life Achievement Award. On November 22, 2006, the University Philosophical Society of Trinity College, Dublin awarded Pacino the Honorary Patronage of the Society.

Pacino starred in Steven Soderbergh’s ''Ocean's Thirteen'' alongside George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Elliott Gould and Andy García as the villain Willy Bank, a casino tycoon targeted by Danny Ocean and his crew. The film received generally favorable reviews.

''88 Minutes'' was released on April 18, 2008 in the United States, having already been released in various other countries in 2007. The film co-starred Alicia Witt and was critically panned, although critics found the fault to be in the plot instead of Pacino's acting. In ''Righteous Kill'', Pacino and Robert De Niro co-star as New York detectives searching for a serial killer; rapper 50 Cent also stars in it. The film was released to theaters on September 12, 2008. Although it was an anticipated return for the two stars, it was not well received by critics. Lou Lumenick of ''The New York Post'' gave ''Righteous Kill'' one star out of four, saying: "Al Pacino and Robert De Niro collect bloated paychecks with intent to bore in ''Righteous Kill'', a slow-moving, ridiculous police thriller that would have been shipped straight to the remainder bin at Blockbuster if it starred anyone else."

2010s

Pacino played Dr. Jack Kevorkian in an HBO Films biopic entitled ''You Don't Know Jack'', which premiered April 2010. The film is about the life and work of the physician-assisted suicide advocate. The performance earned Pacino his second Emmy Award for lead actor and his fourth Golden Globe award.

Pacino and Robert De Niro are reportedly set to star in the upcoming project ''The Irishman'', that will be directed by Martin Scorsese and co-star Joe Pesci. He's also filming a biographical picture about Phil Spector.

It was announced in May 2011 that Pacino was to be honored with the "Glory to the Film-maker" award at the 68th Venice International Film Festival. The award will be presented ahead of the premier of his film ''Wilde Salome'', which is the third film Pacino has directed. Pacino, who plays the role of Herod in the film, describes it as his "most personal project ever".

Personal life

Although he has never married, Pacino has three children from two of his many relationships. The eldest, Julie Marie (born 1989), is his daughter with acting coach Jan Tarrant. He also has twins, son Anton James and daughter Olivia Rose (born 2001), with actress Beverly D'Angelo, with whom he had a relationship from 1996 until 2003. Pacino had a relationship with Diane Keaton, his co-star in the Godfather Trilogy. The on-again, off-again relationship ended following the filming of ''The Godfather Part II''. Other women he has had relationships with include Tuesday Weld, Marthe Keller, Kathleen Quinlan and Lyndall Hobbs.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1969	''Me, Natalie''	Tony	Film debut
1971	''''	Bobby
1972	''''	Michael Corleone	Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting ActorNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
1973		Francis Lionel 'Lion' Delbuchi
1973	''Serpico''	Frank Serpico	Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture DramaNominated—Academy Award for Best Actor
1974	''''	Michael Corleone
1990	''''	Michael Corleone	Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
1991		Johnny
1992			Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting ActorNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
1992	''Scent of a Woman''	Frank Slade	Academy Award for Best Actor
1996		John Pappas
1997
1997	''''	John Milton
1999	''''	Lowell Bergman
1999	''Any Given Sunday''	Tony D'Amato
2000	''Chinese Coffee''	Harry Levine	Also director; filmed in 1997
2002		Will Dormer
2002	''S1m0ne''	Viktor Taransky
2002	''People I Know''	Eli Wurman
2003	''''	Walter Burke
2003	''Gigli''	Starkman
2003		Roy Cohn	Emmy Award for Best Lead Actor – Miniseries or a MovieGolden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion PictureScreen Actors Guild Award–Best Actor in A Mini-Series or Television Movie
2004	''''	Shylock
2005		Walter Abrams
2007	''Ocean's Thirteen''	Willie Bank
2007	''88 Minutes''	Dr. Jack Gramm
2008	''Righteous Kill''	Detective David "Rooster" Fisk
2010		Dr. Jack Kevorkian	TV filmEmmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award–Best Actor in A Mini-Series or Television Movie
2011	''The Son of No One''	Detective Stanford
2011	''Wilde Salome''		director
2011		Himself
2013		Aniello Dellacroce

Awards and nominations

Pacino has been nominated and has won many awards during his acting career including eight Oscar nominations (winning one), 15 Golden Globe nominations (winning four), five BAFTA nominations (winning two), two Emmy Awards for his work on Television and two Tony Awards for his work on the Stage. In 2007 the American Film Institute awarded Pacino with a lifetime achievement award and in 2003 British television viewers voted Pacino as the greatest film star of all time in a poll for Channel 4.

Notes

References

External links

Al Pacino at Emmys.com

Category:1940 births Category:Actors from New York City Category:Actors Studio alumni Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American people of Italian descent Category:American people of Sicilian descent Category:American stage actors Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Best Actor Academy Award winners Category:Best Actor BAFTA Award winners Category:Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actor Golden Globe winners Category:Cecil B. DeMille Award Golden Globe winners Category:Drama Desk Award winners Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School alumni Category:Living people Category:Obie Award recipients Category:Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:People from Harlem Category:People from the Bronx Category:Tony Award winners Category:Article Feedback 5

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