What kind of music did Chopin compose?
Chopin is unique amongst the great composers in that all of his music features the piano. His major works are, of course, his sonatas, waltzes, mazurkas, polonaises, studies, preludes, nocturnes and scherzos. He did write two piano concertos and a handful of other works for piano and orchestra (I particularly like his variations on Mozart’s ‘la ci darem’), a sonata for cello and piano and some songs (meaning works for singer and piano, nor ‘songs’ in the loose usage often found here fostered by itunes). However, unlike many of his contemporaries he wrote no overtures or symphonies, ballets or operas. It is interesting that you should ask this question, as the same point was raised by my wife a couple of days ago as we were listening to one of the piano concertos – and she has loved Chopin for nearly 50 years. I guess that he found sufficient outlet for his creative genius in writing for the piano and found no need to try other genres.
