Fryderyk Chopin Monument

This guide to the Fryderyk Chopin Monument in Warsaw opens on the thirty-first of May, nineteen forty, when German soldiers arrived at this exact spot with dynamite on the order of Governor-General Hans Frank, who wanted Chopin erased from the city he grew up in. It follows the bronze figure under its stone willow from that first act of destruction and asks what became of its shattered pieces. The willow's branches curl overhead like fingers stretched across piano keys, framing the composer as he leans back, eyes half-closed, one hand lifted as though catching a phrase of music from the air.