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/* Works */ minor tweaking, link
==Works==
Chopin is unique among the great composers in that his output is almost entirely for the solo piano. While the early 19th century witnessed many piano virtuosi who toured and played their own music, Chopin distinguished himself from them by shunning most public performances, preferring to play in salons. He considered himself first and foremost a composer, and developed an aversion to the public displays of virtuosity which were a dime a dozen in early 19th-century Paris. His music was thus born out of an interesting contradiction which still confronts pianists today: it is immensely difficult music to perform, requiring the highest level of piano technique, but the goals are the expression of pure musical poetry. The performer must be both a master of the instrument as well as possessing in possession of a noble and unostentatious spirit.
His works were mostly published as collections of short pieces, with the exception of the Concerti and Sonatas. They are often grouped by category, as follows:<ref>Michałowski, Kornel/Samson, Jim: "Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (subscription required).[http://www.grovemusic.com]</ref>
* [[Waltz]]es - whilst these did much to contribute much to Chopin's reputation as a 'Salon' composer, the best of them rival his Mazurkas in unusual harmonic adventures. Chopin did not particularly like the form, but used it to write some of his most well-known works.
* 4 Scherzi and 4 Ballades - longer works that far extend the Fantasia concept. Chopin was one of the first composers to write the scherzo as a stand-alone piece rather than as a movement in a larger work.
* [[Prelude]]s - Chopin's most explicit homage to JS Bach, written during a period of intense emotional pressure on the island of Majorca - the extremely fragmentary nature of some of them puzzled contemporaries (the shortest last seconds rather than minutes), but some commentators have come to observe the set as a whole as one of Chopin's most satisfying works. The 24 Preludes, Op. 28 were modeled directly after Bach's "''[[Well-Tempered Clavier"]]''.
* Impromptus - free-form compositions in an improvisatory style. Most famous of these is the Fantaisie-Impromptu, Op. 66, published posthumously.
* [[Sonata]]s - Chopin's first sonata in C minor was composed in his youth and is usually not performed today. His second sonata in B-flat minor is extremely popular, particularly the famous "Funeral March movement", although in his day it was criticized for perceived structural deficiencies. Chopin attempted to address some of this criticism in his third and final piano sonata in B minor.
