Frederic Chopin
A composer who wrote almost everything for a single instrument and changed its language: etudes, nocturnes, ballades, mazurkas and polonaises. From the age of twenty he lived in Paris, having left Poland for good after the rising of 1830 was put down; he taught and played in salons, giving public concerts only rarely. For nine years he was close to George Sand, parted from her two years before his death, and died of consumption at thirty-nine.
Born in Zelazowa Wola on 1 March 1810 at 18:00 local mean time. The date is disputed: the parish register gives 22 February, but Chopin and his family kept 1 March all their lives, and the catalogue follows their reckoning; the hour comes from the parish record.