On Frederic Chopin 200th Birthday - an homage to a composer who captured the very essence of Polish spirit, a composer whose music independently of geographical location fills minds, hearts, and souls with beautiful torment, exquisite rapture, fascinating mystery, and above all a transcending feeling of longing for more and more of it. 

The Greeks believed music to be the study of relationships between invisible, internal, hidden objects. They believed that music had a way of finding these big invisible pieces of our hearts and souls and rearranging them in such a way that we could be driven to tears, laughter, depression, or euphoria.  In Chopin's music we have a myriad of such emotions written on the page, taken from the very depths of his being and it is now the job of the musician to harness them, and recreate each and every one in such a way that they infuse the audience entirely. 

Yet despite the outpour of emotions, the yearning, what one would think an almost undignified nature of such an outcry, Chopin's music has finesse to it, a polished overtone that even makes his anger seem veiled behind a curtain of refinement. This is what sets apart Chopin from other composers.  He offers the world his heart on a silver platter; however, the heart is in a beautiful crystal case, so as not to sully the hands of the person who will pick it up.  As saturated as his music may be with what in Polish is called 'żal' (zhal – nostalgia caused by sorrow), there is always some small amount of hope in Chopin's music, a flush of sparkling charm that overpowers everyone who happens to hear it.
 
Someone once said that a good cabernet sauvignon will knock your socks of, but a good pinot noir will slide them off gently.  Chopin's music does exactly that.  While other composers act as the rock stars of the classical world and "knock your socks off" with their flashing lights and fireworks that light up, amaze, and then fade, Chopin gently caresses his way into your heart and before you know it you're trapped in a wondrous new world you have no desire of ever escaping.  His music leaves you happily inebriated by its grandeur.

Music by definition is nothing more than organized sound.  Well, if you think about it, sound is nothing more than invisible to us acoustic waves, which are nothing more than energy.  Science tells us that energy once created can never be destroyed, only transferred; therefore music is eternal, immortal.  And if we agree that every note written is a piece of the composer's soul, then we may say that they too, in a sense, are immortal.  Chopin's greatest fear in life was being buried alive, one of the reasons why his heart returned to Poland immediately after his death, the other being that his heart always belonged there, but if we take into consideration the afore mentioned then he really had nothing to worry about.  His music is immortal, his name is immortal, therefore he is as well, and neither time nor death can change that.  200 years after his birth, 161 years after his passing away, we still gather together, whether on a small or grand scale to commemorate this great composer who's life is entirely in his music, all his smiles and all his tears. There is a magic to it that will forever touch the hearts, inspire the minds, and heal the souls of humanity.