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686 wholly banish the impression of incongruity. Fortunately he himself knew the limits of his power, and with very few exceptions his works belong to that class of minor compo sitions of which he was an unrivalled master. Barring a collection of Polish songs, two concertos, and a very small number of concerted pieces of chamber music, almost all his works are written for the pianoforte solo; the symphony, the oratorio, the opera he never attempted. The outer life of Chopin was exceedingly simple and almost totally wanting in incident of any kind. His first musical education he received from a Polish musician of the name of Ziwna, who is said to have been a passionate admirer of J. S. Bach. He also received a good general education at one of the first colleges of Warsaw, where he was supported by the liberality of Prince Antoine Radziwill, a generous protector of artistic talent and himself well known as the composer of music to Goethe s Faust and other works. His musical genius opened to Chopin the best circles of Polish society, a society at that time unrivalled in Europe for its ease of intercourse, the beauty and grace of its women, and its liberal appreciation of artistic gifts. These early impressions of refined life were of lasting influence on Chopin s development both as a man and as an artist. He never was and never wished to be a popular composer ; his works are full of the subtlest touches of sentiment, they breathe indeed the perfume of the salon, and it is the sign of highest power in Chopin that his artistic nature could live in, and even derive new vitality from this -dangerous atmosphere. &quot;While at college he received thorough instruction in the theory of his art from Joseph Eisner, a learned musician and director of the conservatoire at Warsaw. When in 1829 he left his native town for Vienna, where his debut as a pianist took place, he was in all respects a perfectly formed and developed artist. This feature again is characteristic of Chopin s work. There is in his compositions little of that gradual progress which, for instance, in Beethoven necessitates a classification of his works according to different periods. Chopin s individuality and his style were distinctly pronounced in that first Don Giovanni Fantasia which excited the wondering enthusiasm of Robert Schumann. The same mine of sentiment he worked ever after, but it was one of unbounded wealth. His first appearance in public seems to have been marked by considerable success. A correspondent of the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitunrj, at that time the first organ of music in Germany, writing from Vienna, November 1829, says that &quot; M. Chopin has placed himself in the first rank of pianists,&quot; and goes on to speak in enthusiastic terms of &quot;his delicacy of touch, his rare mechanical dexterity, the melancholy tints of his nuances, and the splendid clearness of his phrasing.&quot; In 1831 he left Vienna with the intention of visiting London ; but on his way to England he reached Paris and settled there for the rest of his life. Here again he soon became the favourite and musical hero of society. His connection with Madame Dudevant, better known by her literary pseudonym of George Sand, is an important feature of Chopin s life. When in 1837 his health began to fail, George Sand went with him to Majorca, and it was mainly owing to her tender care that the composer recovered his health for a time. The last ten years of his life were a continual struggle with the pulmonary disease to which he succumbed October 17, 1849. The year before his death he visited England, where he was received with enthusiasm by his numerous admirers. A distinguished English amateur thus records his impressions of Chopin s style of pianoforte- playing compared with those of other masters. &quot; His technical characteristics may be broadly indicated as negation of bravura, absolute perfection of finger-play, and of the legatissimo touch, on. which no other pianist has ever so entirely leant, to the exclusion of that high relief and point which the modern German school, after the examples of Liszt and Thalberg, has so effectively developed. It is in these features that we must recognize that Grundverschiedenheit (fundamental difference) which according to Mendelssohn distinguished Chopin s playing from that of these masters, and in no less degree from the example and teaching of Moscheles Imagine a delicate man of extreme refinement of mien and manner, sitting at the piano and playing with no sway of the body and scarcely any movement of the arms, depending entirely upon his narrow feminine hands and slender fingers. The wide arpeggios in the left hand, maintained in a continuous stream of tone by the strict legato and fine and constant use of the damper-pedal, formed an harmonious substructure for a wonderfully poetic cantabile. His delicate pianissimo, the ever-changing modifications of tone and time (tempo rubato) were of indescribable effect. Even in energetic passages he scarcely ever exceeded an ordinary mezzoforte. His playing as a whole was unique in its kind, and no traditions of it can remain, for there is no school of Chopin the pianist, for the obvious reason that he could never be regarded as a public player, and his best pupils were nearly all amateurs.&quot;

1em  CHOREA, the scientific name of the disease popularly known as St Vitus s Dance.  CHORLEY, a manufacturing town of North Lanca shire, England, is situated eight miles south-east of Preston on the Eiver Yarrow and the Leeds Canal, and on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. The town, which has a weekly market, is well built and is abundantly sup plied with water. It contains an old church in the Norman style with some interesting monuments, and several dis senting chapels. A town-hall has been erected recently at a cost of 30,000. Chorley is the seat of a considerable manufacturing industry. Numerous mills have been erected within and around the town for the manufacture of calico, muslins, jacconets, and fancy goods, while several bleach- fields and print works are in the immediate neighbourhood. Railway-waggon building is extensively carried on. The district contains a number of coal mines and stone quarries. The area of the parish, which forms a local board district, is 3614 acres ; the population in 1861 was 15,013, and in 1871 16,864, of whom 7910 were males and 8954 females.  CHORUS. See and.  CHOSROES. See and.  CHOUANS (a Bas-Breton word signifying screech-owls), the name applied to the royalist insurgents in the west of France, at the time of the Revolution. It has been sug gested that the name arose from the cry they used when approaching their nocturnal rendezvous ; but it is also maintained that it was derived from a nickname applied to their leader Jean Cottereau. Originally a contraband manufacturer of salt, Cottereau had been seized in a scuffle 