Did Chopin ever listen to popular music (excluding Polish dances)?

[russda_man]

It is just that some of his tunes sound as though he MUST have had an influence from somewhere other than classical music. The 3rd Ballade sounds like there he must have been influenced from popular songs, and especially the etude in E major (Opus 10). I know he was influenced by Polish Dances for his Mazurkas, and even contemplated finding out about Polish folk music, which is not classical music at all! He also mentioned to one of his pupils I think, that his playing sounded more like 'Vaudeville' than whatever else it was supposed to sound like, so he must have gone to Vaudeville, or heard about it.

[yuc4h]

It is just that some of his tunes sound as though he MUST have had an influence from somewhere other than classical music. The 3rd Ballade sounds like there he must have been influenced from popular songs, and especially the etude in E major (Opus 10). I know he was influenced by Polish Dances for his Mazurkas, and even contemplated finding out about Polish folk music, which is not classical music at all! He also mentioned to one of his pupils I think, that his playing sounded more like 'Vaudeville' than whatever else it was supposed to sound like, so he must have gone to Vaudeville, or heard about it.

Of course he listened a great deal of everything like every musician and composer should.

[csharp_minor]

It is just that some of his tunes sound as though he MUST have had an influence from somewhere other than classical music. The 3rd Ballade sounds like there he must have been influenced from popular songs, and especially the etude in E major (Opus 10). I know he was influenced by Polish Dances for his Mazurkas, and even contemplated finding out about Polish folk music, which is not classical music at all! He also mentioned to one of his pupils I think, that his playing sounded more like 'Vaudeville' than whatever else it was supposed to sound like, so he must have gone to Vaudeville, or heard about it.

Well as far as I know, he was very influenced by the country folk music that was around him where he was growing up near Warsaw (the place where the Mazurka ordinates), which he adapted into his own style. As well as that he was also highly influenced by the voices of classical Italian singers around at the time in Paris, in particular he liked the Italian vocal school called Pasta.

His fascination for the voice influenced his playing aesthetic as he wanted to bring out the vocal singing quality in the piano, so often referred to Bel canto that means well sung and has an emphasis of sound quality and performance. The more vocal sounding pieces like the nocturnes use a lot of grace notes and this comes from his influence in Bel canto. In some of the Mazurkas for example the idea behind some of them would be to emulate a choir through the various voices within the piece.
 
In no expert but this is what I have learned from various sources, hope you or others find it ( a bit ) useful .

[Petter]

He liked Bellini.

[russda_man]

He liked Bellini.

I know this, but I meant did he actually listen to any popular songs (non-classical) e.g. did he ever go to the theatre and watch someone like you would see on Vaudeville?