Michal Kleofas Ogiński was a Polish composer and political leader.
He participated in Thadeusz Kosciuszko’s uprising, after which he emigrated to Italy. He lived in St. Petersburg from 1802, becoming a senator in 1810. In 1815 he moved to Florence.
He composed military patriotic songs and marches, lyrical art songs, around 40 piano pieces, including Polonaises (among which the Pożegnanie Ojczyzny – “Farewell to Homeland” – became especially famous), Waltzes, Mazurkas and other dances. The opera “Zelis et Valcour” or “Bonaparte in Cairo” (1799), as well as the song Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła (“Poland did not Perish yet”), which later became the Polish National Anthem, have been attributed to Oginski.
