Long before you see Fréderic Chopin’s tombstone, at the Père Lachaise graveyard in Paris, you’ll see the mountains of cards and plastic flowers. What you won’t see, surprisingly, is much red and white, the colors of the Polish flag. Considering the composer’s omnipresence in his country, with its Chopin University of Music, Chopin Airport, and Chopin Vodka, you might expect to see more nationalist outpouring at his final resting place. (Late Pope John Paul II’s grave at the Vatican is decked out in the glittering bicolor.) Still, Chopin is a monumental figure in his country, important on a scale with which only the greats from the most important musical superpowers—Russia, Italy, Germany—can compete.
Where The Flowers Are
Composers and their Countries
