Frederyk Chopin – 3784 Chopin Asteroid and Mercury Crater Chopin – Manchester, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 28.798 W 002° 14.918
30U E 549863 N 5925927
This statue of Fryderyk Chopin playing a piano was erected to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth. He has given his name to an asteroid and a crater on the planet Mercury. A copy of one of his compositions was taken to the Space Station.
Waymark Code: WMDJPT
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/21/2012
Views: 10
Fryderyk Chopin
Chopin was born 22nd February 1810 in Poland to French Parents and died on 17th October 1849 aged only 39.
He was a composer, virtuoso pianist and music teacher and was known as the poet of the piano. He came from a musical family and composed his first work aged only seven.
In 1830 an uprising was started in Poland to try to become independent of Russia. The rebellion failed and like many other Polish people, Chopin left his home country and settled in Paris.
He suffered with bad health from an early age and did not like giving performances in concert halls to large audiences and only ever did so 30 times in his life.
He did however give a few concerts in the UK in 1848. One of these performances was in the Gentlemen’s Concert Hall in Manchester on 28 August. He insisted on playing even though he was very ill at the time.
There are 230 known pieces of his work, the majority being solo compositions. He was considered by many to epitomise the Romantic style. 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.
Chopin’s Centenery.
There were many events all over the world to celebrate Chopin’s bi-centenary and The Polish Heritage Society in Manchester conceived the idea of a monument. Manchester has had a large Polish community for a long time, which has increased significantly since Poland joined the European Union in 2004.
The bronze statue includes material dating from 1831, the year of the November Uprising by Poles against the Russian Empire. The 2.5 metre wide statue sits on a natural stone plinth two metres high.
It was sculpted by Polish sculptor Robert Sobocinski and shows Chopin playing at a Grand Piano whilst his lover Baroness Aurore Lucile Dupin looks on. The open lid of the piano is in the form of a battle scene from the uprising in 1830.
If you approach the statue from the rear then the back of the the figure of Baroness Dupon is actually in the shape of an Eagle. This is symbolic of the Eagle from Poland's coat of arms.
Although he lived half of his life outside Poland he still very much regarded himself as Polish. On the rear of the statue is a plaque commemorating his bi-centenary and a quote from Polish poet Cyprian Konstanty Norwid "He was a Varsovian by birth, a Pole by heart and a citizen of the world by his talent...". A Varsovian is a resident of Warsaw, the city where Chopin lived whilst he was still in Poland.
The statue was paid for by public subscription, the biggest benefactor being Bruntwood a firm of property developers well known for donating 10% of their profits to charity and the arts. It stands outside Centurion House on Deansgate, one of their properties.
Chopin and space
Chopin seems to be popular in the space community, both an asteroid and Mercury crater been named after him. If that wasn’t enough Chopin's manuscript of Prelude in A major Op. 28 No. 7 was taken to the International Space Station by astronaut Captain George Zamka, Polish by birth.
This was done in 2010 to celebrate Chopins bi-centenary and the document was later returned and handed over to the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage in Poland.
http://www.washington.polemb.net/index.php?document=873
3784 Chopin asteroid
3784 Chopin is a small main belt asteroid with a diameter of 28.53 +/- 4.4 km. It was discovered by Eric W. Elst in 1986. It is named after Frédéric Chopin, the nineteenth century Polish composer.
It has a diameter of 28.53 km
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?orb=1;sstr=3784
Mercury crater Chopin
Mercury is the closest planet to the sun and its craters are named after famous writers and artists..
Crater Chopin on Mercury has a diameter of 131.34 km Feature ID 1197
http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/1197
Website of the Extraterrestrial Location: [Web Link]
Website of location on Earth: [Web Link]
Celestial Body: Mercury
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