Julian (or Jules) Fontana (31 July 1810[n 1] — 23 December 1869) was a Polish pianist, composer, lawyer, author, translator, and entrepreneur, best remembered as a close friend and musical executor ofPolish composerFrédéric Chopin.
Born inWarsaw to a family of Italian origin,[2] Fontana studied law at theUniversity of Warsaw and music underJózef Elsner at the conservatory, where he met Chopin. Fontana left Warsaw in 1831, after theNovember Uprising and settled inHamburg, before becoming a pianist and teacher in Paris in 1832.[3]
In 1835 in London he participated in a concert with music played by 6 pianists, the others includingIgnaz Moscheles,Johann Baptist Cramer andCharles-Valentin Alkan.[4]
From 1836 to 1838 he lived together with Chopin in his apartment onChaussée-d'Antin no. 38.[5]
In 1840, Chopin dedicated his 2Polonaises, Op. 40, to Fontana. These included the "Military Polonaise" in A major.
He took up a wandering life that included:
In New York, on 9 September 1850,[4] Fontana married Camilla Dalcour Tennant (1818–1855), widow of Stephen Cattley Tennant (1800–1848), amerchant, and mother ofEnriqueta Augustina Tennant (1843–1908) and four other children.[6] Their son Julian Camillo Adam Fontana was born in Paris on 10 July 1853.[4] Camilla died on 30 March 1855 of pneumonia, while pregnant with her 7th child.[4] Fontana took her children from her first marriage to be looked after by her first husband's family in England. He then returned to New York, where he was naturalised an American citizen on 7 September the same year.[4]
Also in 1855 he published a collection of Chopin's unpublished manuscripts, under the opus numbers 66–73. He also considered publishing more private details concerning Chopin:
"I would have as much to say about the man as about the artist [Chopin]. And when his profound diplomacy, allied to his extraordinary wit, concealed from the world what was not a secret to me, who lived with him for almost thirty years in confidence; on raising the veil, I would show him not entirely as general opinion wishes to have him;" (Julian Fontana toStanisław Egbert Koźmian, 6 June 1851)[7]
He then travelled to Cuba in an unsuccessful bid to recover his late wife's estate. He spent some years travelling between Havana, New York, Paris and Poland. In 1859 he published 16 of Chopin'sPolish Songs, as Op. 74 (a later edition increased this to 17 songs).
In 1860Louis Moreau Gottschalk dedicated two compositions to Fontana,La Gitanella andIllusions perdues.
In the 1860s Fontana translatedCervantes'Don Quixote into Polish. In 1869 he published a book offolk astronomy.
He succumbed todeafness and poverty, and committed suicide by inhalingcarbon monoxide aged 59[2] in Paris.[3] He was buried inMontmartre Cemetery. He had arranged, prior to his death, to have his son looked after by his wife's family in England.[4]
Co do daty urodzenia Juliusza Fontany, pomimo wysokiego prawdopodobieństwa, ale jednak hipotetyczności powyższego wywodu, pozostaje przyjąć – do użytku oficjalnego – datę 31 lipca 1810.
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