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This document contains the complete text from an exhibit in the
University of Chicago Library,
Frédéric Chopin and
his Publishers,
an exhibition in the Department of Special Collections,
on view February 2 through April 10, 1998.
Each of the twenty-four display cases in the Special Collections
exhibit hall concentrated on a particular aspect of the subject.
These individual topics are listed below; click on any topic to
read the associated text. For each case, there is an essay text
followed by the captions that accompanied the items on display.
The 1830s have been called "the decade of the piano" because during
that period the piano and the music written for it played a
dominant role in European musical culture. The piano had, of
course, already been popular for more than half a century. But by
the third decade of the nineteenth century, changes in the
instrument and its audience transformed the piano's role in musical
life. As the Industrial Revolution hit its stride, piano
manufacturers developed methods for building many more pianos than
had previously been feasible, and at lower cost. Pianos ceased to
be the exclusive province of the wealthy; an expanding middle class
could also aspire to own them and make music at home. Thousands of
amateur pianists began to take lessons, buy printed music, and
attend concerts. Virtuosos like Friedrich Kalkbrenner, Sigismund
Thalberg, and Franz Liszt became the first musical superstars,
touring Europe and astonishing audiences with music they had
composed to display their piano technique.
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) rode the crest of the
piano's popularity. His piano playing was highly regarded even by
other virtuosos, and his music--nearly all of it for the piano--was
in great demand from professional and amateur musicians alike.
Unlike the other composer-pianists of his time, however, Chopin
rarely gave public concerts; his performing was generally confined
to the salons of wealthy aristocrats and businessmen. Public
awareness of Chopin's music came about primarily through its
publication, and the process of shepherding his works into print
assumed great importance for him. However, this was not simply a
matter of converting his manuscripts into printed form. Chopin felt
that many performance details--such as phrasing, dynamics,
pedaling, and articulation--were not fixed elements of his music,
even though they have a substantial impact on the way it sounds. He
was inconsistent about including performing instructions in his
manuscripts, and when publishers asked him to supply them at the
proof stage, he often changed his mind several times. Some musical
changes also appeared first in proofs and were never copied into
his manuscripts. Moreover, due to the inconsistencies of
contemporary copyright law, nearly all of Chopin's works had to be
issued simultaneously by publishers in France, Germany, and England
in order to discourage piracy. When he sent separate manuscripts to
these publishers, each copy differed slightly from the last.
Chopin's relationship to his musical texts has created an
unusually complex situation for modern performers, editors, and
musicologists. In order to understand what Chopin intended, it is
necessary to compare an array of manuscript and printed sources
that all form part of Chopin's creative process. Determining which,
if any, of these sources should be considered authoritative remains
one of the most important challenges in Chopin scholarship. This
exhibition draws from the University of Chicago Library's
distinguished collection of first and early editions of Chopin's
music to illustrate how its publication history affects the way we
hear and understand Chopin's music. The Library's Chopin collection
has been developed since the mid- 1960s, principally through gifts
of scores from George W. Platzman in memory of Rose K. Platzman,
the donor's mother. The Olga and Paul Menn Foundation, which
supports musical activities in the University, has also provided
funds for the acquisition of early editions of Chopin as well as
scholarly works in music.
Standley Howell
Unless otherwise specified, all materials in this exhibit
are housed in the Library's Department of Special
Collections.
1A. Memorial portraits of Chopin, 1855.
Reproduction of lithograph by Hermann Raunheim. From Chopin,
Oeuvres posthumes pour piano de Fréd. Chopin,
publiés sur manuscrits originaux avec autorisation de sa
famille par Jules Fontana, Paris: Meissonnier fils, [1855].
Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [M22.C54P577 Rare]
- 1B. George W. Platzman, A Catalogue of
Early Printed Editions of the Works of Frédéric
Chopin in the University of Chicago Library. Chicago: The
Library, 1997. [ML134.C55U75 1997]
- This recently-published catalogue provides detailed
bibliographical descriptions of the 288 items in the Library's
Chopin collection.
1C. Chopin, Sonate pour le piano, oeuv.
35. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, [after 1840]. Rose
K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [M23.C54S7 Rare]
1D. Chopin, 24 préludes pour le
piano, [op. 28]. Paris: Catelin et Cie., [1839].
French first edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection.
[M22.C54P93 Rare]
Chopin first achieved fame as a child prodigy in his native Poland,
and a few of his works were published in Warsaw as early as 1817,
when he was only eight years old. He continued to compose
throughout his student years, but only a handful of these works
were printed, in Polish editions that were not widely distributed
and are now quite rare. When Chopin attained prominence in Paris
during the early 1830s, he allowed a few of his early works (the
Rondos, opp. 1 and 5) to be reissued by French, German, and English
publishers, but he made no further effort to revive the other music
he had composed before 1828. These works languished in manuscript
until after his death and have been trickling into print from
widely scattered sources ever since.
2A. "Frédéric Chopin, 1826."
Reproduction of pencil sketch by Eliza Radziwill. From Krystyna
Kobylanska, Chopin in his Own Land: Documents and
Souvenirs, Cracow: Polskie wydawnictwo muzyczne, 1955. Library
General Collection. [fML410.C6K7]
- 2B. Chopin, Polonoise pour le
piano-forte. Facsimile of Warsaw: J.J. Cybulski, 1817,
edition. From The Facsimile Edition of the Autograph of
Fryderyk Chopin's Works from the Collection of [the] Fryderyk
Chopin Society in Warsaw, Warsaw: Fryderyk Chopin Society;
Tokyo: Green Peace Publishers, 1990. Rose K. Platzman Memorial
Collection. [ML96.4.C54 Rare]
- The title page of Chopin's first published work identifies him
as "a musician aged eight years."
- 2C. Chopin, Rondo pour le piano, op.
1. Paris: Maurice Schlesinger, [1836]. French first edition.
Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [M25.C54R19 Rare]
- Chopin's Rondo, op. 1, was first published at Warsaw in 1825,
then reissued in England, France, and Germany in the
mid-1830s.
- 2D. Chopin, Polonaise pour le piano-
forte, oeuvre posthume. Warsaw: Josef Kauffmann, [ca. 1864].
Polish first edition (?). Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection.
[M32.C54P84 Rare]
- Composed in the early 1820s, this Polonaise was not published
until fifteen years after Chopin's death.
When Chopin graduated from the Warsaw Conservatory in 1829, the
most obvious career option before him was that of a touring
composer-pianist. With this in mind, he composed a number of
virtuoso showpieces for piano and orchestra to display his talents:
the Variations on Mozart's "La ci darem la mano," op. 2;
the Fantasia on Polish Airs, op. 13; and the concert rondo
on a Polish dance, Krakowiak, op. 14. In August 1829, he
traveled to Vienna in hopes of having some of his music published
there. Unexpectedly, he also had the opportunity to give two
concerts. His music was well received and his playing was generally
admired, but there were complaints that his tone was not powerful
enough to make an effect in large halls.
Another year passed before Chopin embarked on his first real
concert tour, which he hoped would take him to Vienna, Paris,
London, and several Italian cities. Armed with two new piano
concertos, he arrived at Vienna in November 1830 to find that only
one of the works he had left with publisher Tobias Haslinger a year
earlier, the op. 2 Mozart variations, was close to being issued and
that the enthusiasm of Viennese audiences had waned. After eight
fruitless months, he left for Paris, where it took another seven
months to organize a concert. That performance, on 26 February
1832, was poorly attended, but served to establish Chopin's
reputation among professional musicians as both pianist and
composer. Nonetheless, persistent criticisms of his small piano
sonority and his own distaste for traveling made it clear to Chopin
that the life of a touring virtuoso was not for him.
- 3A. Program for Chopin's first concert in
Paris, 1832. Reproduction. From Robert Bory, La Vie de
Frédéric Chopin par l'image, Paris: Horizons de
France, 1951. Library General Collection. [fML410.C6B73]
- This concert, originally announced for January 15, 1832, did
not take place until February 26. It featured Chopin playing his
Piano Concerto in E minor and the "La ci darem la mano"
Variations.
- 3B. Chopin, Wariacje, op. 2: "La ci darem
la mano" recopis biblioteki narodowej w Wiedniu, Cracow:
Polskie wydawnictwo muzyczne, 1959. Facsimile of the autograph
manuscript. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation. [M2.8.C54 v.9 Rare]
- Chopin's autograph manuscript, which is exceptionally neat
compared to most of his later manuscripts, contains a canceled
fourth variation that does not appear in Haslinger's printed
edition. This work inspired Robert Schumann's comment, "Hut ab, ihr
Herren, ein Genie!" ("Hats off, gentlemen, a genius!").
3C. Chopin, "La ci darem la mano,"
varié pour le piano-forte avec accompagnement d'orchestre,
oeuvre 2. Vienna: Tobias Haslinger, [1830]. Austrian first
edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [M37.C54V19
Rare]
3D. Chopin, Grande fantaisie sur des airs
polonais pour le pianoforté avec accompagnement d'orchestre,
oeuvre 13. Leipzig: Fr. Kistner, [1834]. German first edition.
Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [Not catalogued]
At the turn of the nineteenth century, there were two basic types
of piano in Europe. The so-called Viennese piano had a light, clear
sound, lacking in sonority but with a very flexible keyboard
action. The English type possessed a richer sound, but its action
was sluggish compared to the Viennese. Over the next several
decades, manufacturers sought to make instruments that incorporated
the best features of both types, but the differences between them
had not wholly disappeared by the time Chopin appeared on the
scene. Chopin initially favored the Viennese piano, which was well
suited to the brilliant passagework and clear textures of the
display pieces he wrote for his public performances. After he
settled in Paris, his preference was for instruments built by the
Pleyel firm, whose highly responsive action, reminiscent of the
Viennese instruments, permitted finely nuanced playing.
Technical improvements made during the same period significantly
increased the sonority and flexibility of the piano, bringing it
very close in most respects to the modern instrument. The
introduction of iron bracing made it possible to hold the strings
at higher tension (making them more resonant) and allowed players
to use greater force without fear of damaging the instrument. After
experimentation with a variety of other materials, manufacturers
began to cover the piano's hammers with felt, which gave players
finer control over attack and tone. The Parisian manufacturer
Sébastien Érard improved the efficiency of the
keyboard by inventing the double-escapement action, which permitted
the playing of extremely rapid repeated notes. Chopin's music takes
full advantage of the enhanced virtuosity and expressivity made
possible by these alterations.
4A. Salle Pleyel, Paris, ca. 1855. Reproduction
of engraving published in Médaille d'honneur à
l'Exposition universelle de 1855, Paris: Pleyel, Wolff, &
Cie., 1858. From Robert Bory, La Vie de
Frédéric Chopin par l'image, Paris: Horizons de
France, 1951. Library General Collection. [ML410.C6B73]
- Music publisher and piano manufacturer Camille Pleyel opened
this concert hall in 1830 as a venue in which virtuoso pianists
could be heard playing Pleyel pianos. It was the site of Chopin's
first Paris concert.
- 4B. "Pianistes célèbres," 1842.
Reproduction of lithograph by Nicolaus E. Maurin, issued as a
supplement to the Revue et gazette musicale de Paris for 1
January 1843. From Ernst Burger, Frédéric Chopin:
Eine Lebenschronik in Bildern und Dokumenten, Munich: Hirmer
Verlag, 1990. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation. Library General
Collection. [ML410.C6B89 1990]
- This group portrait includes many of the most famous virtuoso
pianists of the day: (bottom row) Edward Wolff, Adolf von Henselt,
Franz Liszt; (top row) Jacob Rosenhain, Theodor Döhler,
Chopin, Alexander Dreyschock, and Sigismund Thalberg.
- 4C. Schematics of the Érard single- and
double-escapement piano actions from Le Piano d'Érard a
l'exposition de 1844. From Dossier Erard, Geneva:
Minkoff Reprint, 1980. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation. Library
General Collection. [ML424.E65D72 1980]
- In early piano actions, the hammers fell away from the strings
as soon as a note was played. Sébastien Érard's
double-escapement action, perfected in 1821, held a hammer close to
the strings as long as its key was depressed, making it possible to
repeat notes much more rapidly.
4D. Chopin, Second concerto pour le piano
avec accompagnemt de l'orchestre ou avec quintuor, oeuv.
21. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, [1836]. German first
edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [M37.C54C74
Rare]
- 4E. Chopin, Grande polonaise brillante
précédée d'un Andante spianato pour le piano
avec accompagnement de l'orchestre, oeuvre 22. Leipzig:
Breitkopf & Härtel, [1836]. German first edition. Rose K.
Platzman Memorial Collection. [M37.C54V19 Rare]
-
Public concerts were not the only performance venue for
professional pianists in Paris. Equally important were appearances
at the private salons of aristocrats and wealthy businessmen, who
entertained lavishly and competed to attract the finest musicians
to sing or play at their soirées. The elegance and
refinement of Chopin's music and his piano playing made him a
welcome guest. Before the revolution of 1830, musicians who
performed in private homes had been treated as hired help, but
Chopin was quickly accepted into well-to-do social circles. Through
contacts he made on these occasions, Chopin established himself
before the end of 1832 as the favored piano teacher in Paris.
Demand for his services was high enough that he could charge
exceptionally high fees for lessons, and Chopin discovered that
this income, combined with what he could realize from publishing
his music, provided him with an alternative to the concert circuit.
Chopin's music was extremely popular among both salon audiences
and, in published form, middle-class amateurs. What attracted
audiences more than the virtuoso showpieces Chopin had written for
public display were his shorter dance pieces (especially the
waltzes and mazurkas) and the lyrical nocturnes. The high level of
musical invention and polish in these works immediately set them
apart from the reams of piano music flooding the market at that
time. They sold well, even though they were more difficult to play
than most popular genre pieces.
5A. Chopin playing at the home of Prince Antoni
Radziwill, 1887. Reproduction of oil painting by Henryk
Siemiradzki. From Ernst Burger, Frédéric Chopin:
Eine Lebenschronik in Bildern und Dokumenten, Munich: Hirmer
Verlag, 1990. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation. Library General
Collection. [ML410.C6B89 1990]
5B. Chopin, Quatre mazurkas pour le
pianoforte, oeuvre 6. Leipzig: Fr. Kistner, [1832]. German
first edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [Not
catalogued]
5C. Chopin, Grande valse brillante pour le
piano, opera 18. Paris: Maurice Schlesinger, [1834]. French
first edition. [M32.C54W39 Rare]
5D. Chopin, Deux nocturnes pour le piano,
op. 27. Paris: Maurice Schlesinger, [1836]. French first
edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [M25.C54N81
Rare]
During Chopin's lifetime, no international copyright law protected
the rights of publishers in France. A publisher who copyrighted a
literary or musical work there could not prevent pirate editions
from being published in other countries. To cope with this
situation, French publishers routinely made arrangements with
publishers in England and Germany or Austria for editions to be
published simultaneously in all three countries. When all three
publishers registered a work for national copyright on the same
day, it became illegal for anyone else to publish it in those
countries. Typically, composers sold their works outright to a
single publisher, who then negotiated the rights for other
countries with publishers of their choice. Composers with an
international reputation were sometimes able to realize more profit
from their music by selling directly to publishers in each country.
First editions of nearly all of Chopin's mature works were
issued in three different countries. Despite the best efforts of
all concerned, these publications were not in fact
simultaneous--some of the editions were separated in time by a year
or more--, yet only a few pirated editions appeared. The first of
Chopin's works to be published "simultaneously" in France, Germany,
and England were the Nocturnes, op. 9, which appeared over the
period from December 1832 to June 1833. Maurice Schlesinger and
Friedrich Kistner, the French and German publishers, cited each
other's editions on their title pages, but not that of Christian
Wessel, the English publisher. Wessel, in turn, almost never
acknowledged his Continental counterparts on the title pages of his
editions.
6A. Frédéric Chopin, 1833.
Reproduction of lithograph by Gottfried Engelmann, after a portrait
by Pierre Roche Vigneron. From Ernst Burger,
Frédéric Chopin: Eine Lebenschronik in Bildern
und Dokumenten, Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 1990. Olga and Paul
Menn Foundation. Library General Collection. [ML410.C6B89 1990]
This portrait, the first published image of Chopin, was
distributed with the January 1834 issue of the Album des pianistes,
a music anthology series brought out by Schlesinger. The same issue
contained the French first edition of Chopin's Nocturnes, op.
15.
6B. Chopin, Trois nocturnes pour le piano,
opéra 9. Paris: Maurice Schlesinger, [1833]. French
first edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [M25.C54N58
Rare]
6C. Chopin, Trois nocturnes pour le
pianoforte, oeuvre 9. Leipzig: Fr. Kistner, [1832]. German
first edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [Not
catalogued]
6D. Chopin, Les Murmures de la Seine: trois
nocturnes pour le piano forte, Book [handwritten "2"], op.
9. London: Wessel & Co., [1833]. English first edition.
Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [Not catalogued]
The day after his first Paris concert in February 1832, Chopin was
approached by the music publisher Aristide Farrenc (1794-1865). He
signed a contract selling Farrenc copyright for a group of five
works, including the right to negotiate their publication outside
of France. However, Farrenc withdrew from the deal later that same
year in frustration over what he considered Chopin's laziness and
the excessive technical difficulty of his music. By November,
Chopin had made a new arrangement with Maurice Schlesinger
(1798-1871), who was to remain his principal French publisher.
German by birth, Schlesinger learned the publishing trade from his
father in Berlin and established his own music business at Paris in
1821. His house organ, the Revue et gazette musicale de
Paris, became the leading music journal in France, and Chopin
benefited considerably from its sympathetic reviews of his music.
Chopin normally gave Schlesinger his original manuscript or a
fair copy made from it to serve as the model for engraving. (Many
surviving autographs bear engravers' marks indicating where the
breaks between systems would occur on the printed page.)
Schlesinger sent proofs to Chopin for correction, but the composer
also took this opportunity (perhaps at Schlesinger's behest) to add
pedaling and expression marks that were not in the autograph.
Sometimes these changes were so extensive that second proofs had to
be prepared (and corrected) before publication. The printed
editions therefore represent a more advanced compositional stage
than the composer's manuscripts.
7A. Schlesinger's proof of Chopin's Etude in A
minor, op. 10, no. 2, with handwritten fingerings and corrections
by Chopin, ca. 1833. Reproduction. From Ernst Burger,
Frédéric Chopin: Eine Lebenschronik in Bildern
und Dokumenten, Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 1990. Olga and Paul
Menn Foundation. Library General Collection. [ML410.C6B89 1990]
7B. Chopin, Scherzo b-moll, op. 31, rekopis
Biblioteki Konserwatorium w Paryzu. Cracow: Polskie
wydawnictwo muzyczne, 1957. Facsimile of an autograph manuscript,
1837. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation. [M2.8.C54 v.8 Rare]
In preparing the Schlesinger edition of the Scherzo,
op. 31, from this manuscript, the engraver wrote arabic numbers on
selected barlines to indicate where line breaks would occur in the
printed score.
7C. Chopin, Scherzo pour piano, opera 31.
Paris: Maurice Schlesinger, [1837]. French first edition. Rose K.
Platzman Memorial Collection. [Not catalogued]
7D. Chopin, Prélude pour le piano,
op. 45. Paris: Maurice Schlesinger, [1841]. French first
separate edition. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation. [M25.C54P91
Rare]
As early as 1831, the Leipzig music publisher Heinrich Probst had
written to Chopin about publishing some of his works. By the time
Chopin began serious negotiations with publishers the following
year, however, Probst had sold his business to Friedrich Kistner.
Chopin showed Probst's letter to Farrenc in Paris, who thereupon
offered Kistner the German rights to the works he had bought from
Chopin. When Schlesinger took over Farrenc's interest, he honored
the agreement already made with Kistner. Schlesinger provided
Kistner with copies of proofs corrected by Chopin beginning in
November 1832. Kistner wasted no time at all rushing this music
into print, so that his editions appeared several months ahead of
Schlesinger's. Kistner's dependence on Schlesinger's proofs is
apparent in the physical layout of the editions: the number of
measures per system and the placement of slurs, dynamics, and other
expression marks is virtually identical, to an extent that would be
highly unlikely if engravers at each firm worked from manuscript
copies. There are, however, occasional musical differences between
the French and German publications, suggesting that Chopin may have
sent last-minute revisions to Schlesinger that are not reflected in
Kistner's editions.
8A. "Fryderyk Chopin," 1836. Reproduction of
watercolor by Maria Wodzinska. From Ernst Burger,
Frédéric Chopin: Eine Lebenschronik in Bildern
und Dokumenten, Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 1990. Olga and Paul
Menn Foundation. Library General Collection. [ML410.C6B89 1990]
Chopin was courting Maria Wodzinska when she painted
this portrait of him in her private album.
8B. Chopin, 4 mazurkas pour le "piano forte,"
oeuv. 7. Paris: Maurice Schlesinger, [1833]. French first
edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [Not catalogued]
8C. Chopin,Cinq mazurkas pour le
pianoforte, oeuvre 7. Leipzig: Fr. Kistner, [1832]. German
first complete edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [Not
catalogued]
Kistner first issued Opus 7 with only four mazurkas,
omitting the mazurka in C major, which was first included in the
edition displayed here.
8D. Chopin, Douze grandes études pour
le pianoforte, oeuvre 10. Leipzig: Fr. Kistner, [1833]. German
first edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [M25.C54E7
Rare]
After selling his publishing business to Kistner, Heinrich Probst
moved to Paris, where he managed Camille Pleyel's piano showroom.
In mid-1833, he also became the Paris sales agent for another
Leipzig music publisher, Breitkopf und Härtel. Within a short
time, he convinced Chopin to abandon Kistner and take up with his
new firm. Chopin never published with Kistner again, and Breitkopf
became his principal German publisher. Breitkopf, one of the
largest and most venerable music houses in Europe, offered Chopin
not only higher fees but an international distribution system that
made Chopin's music more widely known than Kistner (or Schlesinger,
for that matter) could have done.
The appearance of Breitkopf's early Chopin editions confirms
that they, like Kistner's, were closely based on proofs supplied by
Schlesinger. In the Variations on "Je vends des
Scapulaires" displayed here, Breitkopf's edition closely
parallels Schlesinger's up to the third system on the left-hand
page. At that point, the French engraver had changed the prevailing
notational pattern--designed to clarify which hand was supposed to
play which notes--in order to squeeze as many notes as possible
onto a single system. The German editor made the notational pattern
of this passage consistent with what had come before and spread a
single measure over two systems. From that point on, the layout of
the Breitkopf edition is independent of its French model.
9A. Frédéric Chopin, ca. 1841.
Reproduction of pencil sketch by George Sand. From Georges Lubin,
George Sand en Berry, [Paris]: Librairie Hachette, 1967.
Library General Collection. [PQ2415.L7 1992]
Chopin considered this drawing by novelist George Sand,
his lover for nine years, to be the truest likeness of
him.
9B. Hermann Härtel, 1834. Reproduction of
pencil drawing by Friedrich Preller. From Oskar von Hase,
Breitkopf & Härtel: Gedenkschrift und
Arbeitsbericht, 4th ed., Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel,
1919. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation. Library General Collection.
[ML405.B84H3]
9C. Raymond Härtel, ca. 1860? Reproduction
of photograph. From Oskar von Hase, Breitkopf &
Härtel: Gedenkschrift und Arbeitsbericht, 4th ed.,
Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1919. Olga and Paul Menn
Foundation. Library General Collection. [ML405.B84H3]
Raymond Härtel (1810-1888) and his brother Hermann
(1803- 1875) ran the Breitkopf & Härtel firm throughout
Chopin's publishing career.
9D. Chopin, Variations brillantes pour le
piano- forte sur la ronde favorite "Je vends des Scapulaires" de
Ludovic, op. 12. Paris: Maurice Schlesinger, [1834]. French
first edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [M27.C54V21
Rare]
9E. Chopin, Variations brillantes pour le
pianoforte sur le rondeau favori: "Je vends des Scapulaires" de
Ludovic de Herold et Halevy, oeuv. 12. Leipzig: Breitkopf
& Härtel, [1833]. German first edition. Olga and Paul Menn
Foundation. [M27.C54V2 Rare]
These variations were based on the aria "Je vends des
Scapulaires" from the opera Ludovic, left unfinished at
his death early in 1833 by Ferdinand Hérold and completed by
Fromental Halévy.
9F. Chopin, Grande valse brillante pour le
pianoforte, oeuvre 18. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel,
[1834]. German first edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection.
[Not catalogued]
Late in 1835, Chopin began sending manuscripts of his works--his
own autographs or copies made under his supervision--directly to
Breitkopf instead of letting Schlesinger send corrected proofs.
Some of these manuscripts survive, marked with engravers'
annotations that correspond to the German first editions. This
change in the way Breitkopf received Chopin's music makes the
already murky hierarchy of source material still more complex. In
most cases, the manuscripts given to Schlesinger in Paris seem to
have been the first ones to be written. The scores sent to Germany
were not mere copies, however, but often included alterations that
did not appear in the French autographs. This would suggest that
the German versions were more finished and hence authoritative. On
the other hand, once Chopin sent his music to Breitkopf or another
foreign publisher, he had no further control, so that engravers'
errors or misreadings of his notation went uncorrected. For the
French editions, he had the opportunity to make corrections and
changes up to the last minute. As a result, the French editions are
most often considered the principal sources for Chopin's music, but
the German versions must be carefully considered as well. The
French and German first editions of Chopin's Scherzo, op. 31,
illustrate the range of variants that could arise from this
publishing practice. Even in the opening bars, there are
differences in dynamics (the crescendo in measure 1), phrasing
(treatment of the sustained top note in measures 2-4), and
ornamentation (mordent versus grace note on the second beat of
measure 3) that affect the way the music sounds. Neither edition
matches the autograph, even though this manuscript was used as a
model by Schlesinger's engraver.
10A. Frédéric Chopin, 1844.
Reproduction of watercolor by Giuseppe Fagnani. From Ernst Burger,
Frédéric Chopin: Eine Lebenschronik in Bildern
und Dokumenten, Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 1990. Olga and Paul
Menn Foundation. Library General Collection. [ML410.C6B89 1990]
10B. Chopin, Ballada, As-dur, op. 47,
wstepem opatrzyl Wladyslaw Hordynski. Cracow: Polskie
wydawnictwo muzyczne, 1952. Facsimile of an autograph manuscript
(since destroyed), 1842. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation. [M2.8.C54
v.2 Rare]
10C. Chopin, 3e ballade pour le
piano, op. 47. Paris: Maurice Schlesinger, [1841]. French
first edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [Not
catalogued]
10D. Chopin, Ballade pour le piano, op.
47. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, [1842]. German first
edition. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation. [M25.C54B3 Rare]
Within a few months after Chopin's music began to appear at Paris
under Schlesinger's imprint, Christian Wessel started issuing
parallel editions in London. Wessel, another German, founded his
business in England with the intent to concentrate on publishing
music from the Continent. It is not known how he became Chopin's
English representative, although Schlesinger probably approached
him. For many years, music historians assumed that Wessel's
editions were copied from Schlesinger's printed scores and that
Chopin had no hand in them. More recently, however, it has become
apparent that Wessel received Chopin's music in much the same way
that Breitkopf did. At first, Wessel dealt with Schlesinger, who
sold him the English copyright and sent him copies of corrected
proofs. Later, perhaps after Chopin visited London in 1837, the
composer began to negotiate directly with Wessel and send him
manuscripts. Unfortunately, none of these proofs or manuscripts has
survived.
By 1839, Chopin became unhappy with Wessel, because the
publisher was often sluggish about sending Chopin his fee and
because Wessel insisted on adding flowery romantic titles to
Chopin's works, despite repeated complaints from the composer. In
later years, Chopin avoided dealing personally with Wessel,
preferring to work through a variety of intermediaries or to sell
the English rights to a French publisher. For these later works,
Wessel once again received corrected proofs rather than
manuscripts. Nonetheless, it is now clear that Wessel was an equal
partner in the international distribution of Chopin's works, and
scholars are still evaluating the importance of these English
editions relative to the French and German ones.
11A. Frédéric Chopin at the
piano, ca. 1844. Reproduction of ink drawing by January
Sucholdoski. From Wladyslaw Duleba, Chopin, Cracow:
Polskie wydawnictwo muzyczne, 1975. Library General Collection.
[ML410.C6D88]
11B. Chopin, Trois nocturnes pour le piano,
op. 15. Paris: Maurice Schlesinger, [1833]. French first
separate edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [M25.C54N71
Rare]
11C. Chopin, Les Zephyrs: 7me.,
8me. et 9me. nocturnes pour le piano forte,
op. 15. London: Wessel & Co., [1834]. English first
edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [Not catalogued]
11D. Chopin, Souvenir d'Andalousie: Bolero
pour le piano forte, op. 19. London: Wessel & Co., [1835].
English first edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [Not
catalogued]
Like other young composers, Chopin dedicated his early Parisian
publications to well- known composer-pianists or well-to-do patrons
of the arts, who were in a position to provide recommendations,
commissions, or employment opportunities. More generally, by
associating himself with famous musicians and wealthy lovers of
music, Chopin enhanced public estimation of his own music.
Publishers recognized the value of these associations for their
sales and prominently displayed the names of dedicatees on title
pages.
After Chopin became famous, however, most of his dedications
were to personal friends. Many of these were still members of high
society, since that was the circle in which Chopin moved, but there
is little to suggest that he felt the need to court favor. In many
cases, he seems to have been very casual about selecting
dedicatees, often making up his mind or changing it at the last
minute. Chopin dedicated a significant number of works to his
students, ranging from aristocratic ladies to professional pianists
like Friedericke Müller.
It is curious that Chopin did not dedicate published works to
either of the two known loves of his life, Maria Wodzinska
(1819-1896) and George Sand (1804-1876). Chopin had known the
Wodzinski family since childhood and fell in love with Maria in
1835, when she was sixteen. He proposed, but her family did not
approve, probably because of his chronic ill health. He inscribed a
manuscript of the Waltz, op. 69, no. 1 to Maria during their
courtship, but the work was not published during his lifetime; in
later years he did not hesitate to dedicate copies of it to other
ladies. Chopin lived with novelist George Sand for nine years
(1838-1847) and their relationship was common knowledge among
members of Paris society, but Chopin may have felt that a public
dedication to her stretched the bounds of propriety.
12A. Friedrich Kalkbrenner, ca. 1830.
Reproduction of lithograph. From Ernst Burger,
Frédéric Chopin: Eine Lebenschronik in Bildern
und Dokumenten, Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 1990. Olga and Paul
Menn Foundation. Library General Collection. [ML410.C6B89 1990]
Friedrich Kalkbrenner (1785-1849) was the reigning
piano virtuoso in Paris when Chopin arrived in 1831. Chopin admired
him greatly and briefly considered becoming his
student.
12B. Chopin, Grand concerto pour le pianoforte
avec accompagnement d'orchestre ou de quintuor ad libitum, oeuvre
11. Leipzig: Fr. Kistner, [1833]. German first edition. Rose
K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [M37.C54C695 Rare]
12C. Charlotte de Rothschild, ca. 1842.
Reproduction of oil painting by Ary Scheffer. From Leo Ewals,
Ary Scheffer, 1795-1858: Les musées de la ville de
Paris, Musée de la vie romantique, 10 avril-28 juillet
1996. Paris: Paris mus, 1996. Charles and Janice Feldstein
Book Fund. Library General Collection. [ND553.S4A4 1996]
Charlotte de Rothschild (1825-1899), daughter of the
banker James de Rothschild, took piano lessons with Chopin in her
youth. However, it was only after she married her cousin Nathaniel
de Rothschild in 1842 that Chopin dedicated the Ballade, op. 52,
and the Waltz, op. 64, no. 2, to her.
12D. Chopin, Trois valses pour piano, op. 64,
no. 2. Paris: Brandus et Cie., [1847]. French first
edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [M32.C54W622 Rare]
12E. Marie d'Agoult, 1843. Reproduction of oil
painting by Henri Lehmann. From Ernst Burger, Franz Liszt: A
Chronicle of his Life in Pictures and Documents, Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1989. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation.
Library General Collection. [fML410.L8B874 1989]
Marie, comtesse d'Agoult (1805-1876), who wrote fiction
and social commentary under the pseudonym Daniel Stern in the
1840s, achieved notoriety for her adulterous relationship with
Franz Liszt during the 1830s. She knew Chopin through Liszt as well
as through her friendship with Chopin's lover, George
Sand.
12F. Chopin, Etudes pour le piano, op.
25. Paris: Maurice Schlesinger, [1837]. French first edition.
Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [Not catalogued]
12G. Friedericke Müller, 1847.
Reproduction of lithograph by Anton Hähnisch. From
Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, Chopin vu par ses
élèves, Neuchâtel: Editions de la
Baconnière, 1979. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation. Library
General Collection. [ML410.C6E34 1979]
Friedericke Müller (1816-1895) was a
highly-regarded professional pianist and one of Chopin's favorite
pupils during the year and a half she studied with him (1839-1841).
After Chopin dedicated the Allegro de concert, op. 46, to her,
Franz Liszt gave her the nickname "Mademoiselle opus quarante-
six."
12H. Chopin, Allegro de concert pour le piano,
op. 46. Paris: Maurice Schlesinger, [1841]. French first
edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [Not catalogued]
Chopin's reputation as a composer was principally that of a
miniaturist who achieved great melodic and harmonic richness within
brief and simple musical forms. Once firmly established in Paris,
however, Chopin began to experiment with more complex musical
structures, most notably in his scherzos, ballades, and polonaises.
As titles for independent piano pieces, scherzo (Italian for
"joke") and ballade (usually a lyrical vocal work) had no specific
meaning for nineteenth-century audiences, so Chopin was free to
define these genres himself. His scherzos adhere loosely to a
ternary (A-B-A) structure, while the ballades use principles of
sonata form, but he turned both genres into virtual tone poems that
explore a remarkably wide expressive range. Chopin wrote many
simple polonaises in his youth, but he avoided the genre after he
left Poland. When he turned to the polonaise again in the
mid-1830s, he invested it with a heroic scale and character far
removed from its dance origins.
Chopin's large-scale works were not among his most popular ones.
They were difficult to learn and their musical form and content
puzzled contemporary musicians. It is a measure of Chopin's stature
that publishers not only printed these pieces but paid substantial
sums for them, even though they were unlikely to reap an immediate
profit.
13A. Chopin's Pleyel piano. Reproduction of
photograph, ca. 1980. From Ernst Burger, Frédéric
Chopin: Eine Lebenschronik in Bildern und Dokumenten, Munich:
Hirmer Verlag, 1990. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation. Library General
Collection. [ML410. C6B89 1990]
Chopin owned both Pleyel and Érard pianos, but
he preferred Pleyel instruments. He acquired this piano in
1847.
13B. Chopin, Scherzo pour pianoforte, oeuv.
20. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, [1835]. German first
edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [M25.C54S4 Rare]
13C. Chopin, Ballade pour le piano, op.
23. Paris: Maurice Schlesinger, [1836]. French first separate
edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [M25.C54B12
Rare]
13D. Chopin, Deux polonaises pour le piano,
op. 26. Paris: Maurice Schlesinger, [1836]. French first
separate edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [Not
catalogued]
Chopin's music sold so well that publishers were obliged to reprint
his works frequently in order to keep up with demand. Most of these
reissues used the plates from the first editions; and since printed
scores of this period almost never bore publication dates, later
printings are often distinguished only by changes on the title
pages, such as the price or the publisher's address. However, there
are frequently alterations in the music as well. In Paris editions,
some of these variants may be corrections or second thoughts
originating with the composer, although it is rarely possible to
document his responsibility for them.
The most conspicuous changes are in Breitkopf und Härtel's
reissues, and there is little chance that Chopin had any part in
them. Rather, they seem to represent an editor's attempt to rectify
what he considered omissions or flaws in the first editions.
Dynamics, pedaling, and phrasing are added, and passages that
Chopin provided with different expression marks, harmonizations, or
rhythms when they recurred later in the piece are altered so that
each appearance of the passage is the same. Imposing such
regularization removes a distinctive characteristic of Chopin's
music, so it is particularly important for modern scholars and
editors to identify which edition they are using.
14A. Frédéric Chopin, 1847.
Reproduction of oil painting by Ary Scheffer. From Ernst Burger,
Frédéric Chopin: Eine Lebenschronik in Bildern
und Dokumenten, Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 1990. Olga and Paul
Menn Foundation. Library General Collection. [ML410.C6B89 1990]
14B. Chopin, Douze etudes pour le piano,
oeuvre 25, liv. I. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel,
[1837]. German first edition. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation.
[M25.C54E8 Rare]
14C. Chopin, Douze etudes pour le piano,
oeuvre 25, liv. I. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel,
[after 1845]. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [Not
catalogued]
By the late 1830s, Chopin was so popular that he was able to demand
extremely high fees for his works from publishers. Eventually,
Schlesinger and Breitkopf began to balk at his escalating prices,
and Chopin responded by negotiating with other publishers who were
eager to break the hegemony established by Schlesinger, Breitkopf,
and Wessel. It did not take his regular publishers long to
recognize that in the long run it would be profitable to have as
many Chopin works in their catalogues as possible, regardless of
their initial cost. Most of Chopin's music continued to appear
through these publishers, but Chopin did not hesitate to take his
business elsewhere whenever he encountered resistance or
inconvenience at their hands.
Chopin's concern to obtain larger fees for his music was
motivated in part by a marked decline in his productivity during
the 1840s. His deteriorating health, caused by chronic pulmonary
tuberculosis that he had from his teenage years, left him fewer and
fewer periods when he felt able to compose. He also became
increasingly self-critical as the years passed and was unwilling to
publish works that did not meet his high standards. The acrimonious
end of his relationship with George Sand in 1847 left his personal
life in turmoil, and the Revolution of 1848, which forced most of
his aristocratic students to flee Paris, left him without his
primary source of income. During his final decline, he was unable
to compose at all.
15A. Frédéric Chopin, 1838.
Reproduction of oil painting by Eugène Delacroix. From Ernst
Burger, Frédéric Chopin: Eine Lebenschronik in
Bildern und Dokumenten, Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 1990. Olga and
Paul Menn Foundation. Library General Collection. [ML410.C6B89
1990]
15B. Pietro Mechetti, 1839. Reproduction of
lithograph by Joseph Kriehuber. From Alexander Weinmann,
Verlagsverzeichnis Pietro Mechetti quondam Carlo. Vienna:
Universal Edition, 1966. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation. Library
General Collection. [ML113.W42]
15C. Chopin, 2 nocturnes pour le piano, op.
62. Autograph manuscript. On loan from Newberry Library.
This manuscript preserves visible evidence of Chopin's
revisions and corrections, as well as engraver's markings (red
arabic numerals over selected barlines) that correspond with line
breaks in the first French edition. "B[randus] et Cie.
4611" in the lower margin indicates that this work received
Brandus's plate number 4611. Displayed here are the opening of the
first nocturne from op. 62 (right-hand page) and the end of the
second nocturne (left-hand page).
15D. Chopin, 2 nocturnes pour piano, op.
62. Paris: Brandus et Cie., [1846]. French first
edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [M25.C54N919 Rare]
In 1846, Maurice Schlesinger sold his business to Gemmy
Brandus, who continued to reissue Schlesinger's stock of Chopin's
music and assumed Schlesinger's role as Chopin's primary French
publisher.
15E. Chopin, Polonaise pour le piano, oeuvre
44. Vienna: Pietro Mechetti, [1841]. Austrian first edition.
Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [Not catalogued]
Chopin published his Polonaise, op. 3, with Pietro
Mechetti (1777-1850) in 1831, while he was resident in Vienna, but
it was not until the early 1840s that he offered Mechetti any of
his other works.
15F. Chopin, Deux nocturnes pour le piano, op.
37. Paris: E. Troupenas & Cie., [ca. 1840].
French first edition? Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection.
[M25.C54N85 Rare]
Annoyed by Schlesinger's attempts to delay publication
of a spate of new works in 1840, Chopin placed eight of them (opp.
35-41 and 43) with a competitor, Eugène-Théodore
Troupenas (1799-1850).
Some of Chopin's works made their first appearance outside the
music publishing mainstream. Maurice Schlesinger frequently offered
subscribers to his Revue et gazette musicale score
supplements featuring new additions to his firm's catalogue in
advance of their general publication. Six of Chopin's opuses were
issued in this manner. Technically they are first editions, but
they seem to have been rushed into print before Chopin could make
final corrections. For instance, the Gazette publication
of the Impromptu, op. 51, transposed pages 3 and 5, making nonsense
of the musical structure.
Publishers occasionally persuaded Chopin to participate in
collaborative efforts with other leading composers. For example, he
contributed a mazurka to an album of piano music sponsored by
another Paris music journal, La France musicale; and he
was one of six composers who each wrote a single variation on a
march from Vincenzo Bellini's I puritani for a publication
entitled Hexameron after the number of composers
involved.
In 1840, music educator François Joseph Fétis and
composer Ignaz Moscheles published the first historical piano
method book, the Méthode des méthodes de
piano, which provided instruction for playing in both
historical and contemporary musical styles. Excerpts from Chopin's
music were used to illustrate virtuoso techniques. A supplementary
volume featured etudes by modern composers, many of them written
specifically for the Méthode, including Chopin's
Trois nouvelles études.
16A. Title page from the Méthode des
méthodes de piano by François Joseph
Fétis and Ignaz Moscheles. Reproduction from a facsimile of
the Paris, Maurice Schlesinger, 1840, edition. Geneva: Minkoff
Reprint, 1973. Library General Collection. [fMT222.F42]
16B. Tobias Haslinger, 1842. Reproduction of
lithograph by Joseph Kriehuber. From Franz Zagiba, "Chopin und
Tobias Haslinger," Chopin Jahrbuch 1956. Library General
Collection. [ML410.C6C57]
16C. Chopin, 3e impromptu pour
piano, op. 51. Paris: Maurice Schlesinger, 1843. French first
edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [Not catalogued]
A note on the title page indicates that this edition
accompanied the Gazette musicale for July 9,
1843.
16D. Six morceaux de salon pour le piano,
spécialement composé pour La France musicale.
Paris: France musicale, [1841]. French first edition. Rose K.
Platzman Memorial Collection. [M21.S62 Rare]
La France musicale sponsored this album, which
includes Chopin's Mazurka in A minor and works by Friedrich
Kalkbrenner, Henri Bertini, Edward Wolff, George Alexander Osborne,
and Antoni Katski.
16E. Hexameron, morceau de concert: grandes
variations de bravoure pour piano sur la marche des Puritains de
Bellini. Vienna: Tobias Haslinger, [1839]. Austrian first
edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [M27.L77H61 Rare]
A set of variations on a march from Vincenzo Bellini's
I puritani, with variations contributed by Franz Liszt,
Sigismund Thalberg, Johann Peter Pixis, Henri Herz, Carl Czerny,
and Chopin.
16F. Etudes de perfectionnement (Etüden
für Spieler höherer Ausbilding). Berlin: Adolph
Martin Schlesinger, [1840]. German first edition. [M21.E85 Rare]
This collection includes Chopin's Trois nouvelles
études and studies by Ignaz Moscheles, Sigismund
Thalberg, Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Liszt, and others.
Chopin took his piano teaching very seriously. In the early 1840s,
he even sketched the beginnings of a method for playing the
instrument, but this project was never completed. Chopin taught
music written by a variety of composers, of whom Johann Sebastian
Bach was particularly prominent, but his students cherished most
the opportunity to study the master's own works with him. During
lessons, he and his students frequently wrote instructions
concerning performance in the students' printed copies of his
music. Most of these were fingerings, with occasional details of
dynamics, articulation, and phrasing. The markings were primarily
didactic and tailored to the needs of individual students. From
time to time, however, Chopin also altered pitches, redistributed
chords, and even completely rewrote ornamental passagework, changes
that are not found in any other early sources. Controversy
continues over whether these annotations reflect Chopin's final
revisions of his music or spur-of-the-moment changes that were
never intended to have any permanent validity.
The most important of the surviving annotated scores are the
ones that belonged to Jane Stirling, a Scottish lady who studied
with Chopin between 1843 and 1849 and assembled French editions for
nearly all of the composer's works into seven bound volumes. The
fact that Chopin assisted Stirling in compiling a thematic index of
her scores has resulted in speculation that he intended this
collection to serve as the basis for a revised collected edition of
his music. However, the nature of some of his markings belies this
possibility. For example, the change in tempo from Allegro to Largo
in the Prelude in E-flat Minor, op. 28, no. 14, probably indicated
that Chopin wanted Stirling to practice the work slowly, not that
he had changed his mind about the music's expressive character.
Annotated scores may provide us with valuable clues to the way
Chopin preferred his music to be played, but their significance
relative to other authentic source material is still uncertain.
17A. Caricature of Pauline Viardot and
Frédéric Chopin, June 1844. Reproduction of ink
drawing by Maurice Sand. From Wladyslaw Duleba, Chopin,
Cracow: Polskie wydawnictwo muzyczne, 1975. Library General
Collection. [ML410.C6D88]
Chopin is saying "Ça c'est le jeu de 'Listz'! Il
n'en faut pas pour accompagner la voix" ("That's the 'Listz' [sic]
style of playing! That shouldn't be used when accompanying the
voice"). Pauline Viardot (1821-1910), a well-known singer and
sister of the legendary diva Maria Malibran, was already a
professional pianist when she met Chopin in 1840. He did not give
her formal lessons, but played and discussed a wide range of music
with her.
17B. Jane Stirling and her niece Fanny Elgin, ca.
1840. Reproduction of lithograph by Achille Dev From
Frédéric Chopin, Oeuvres pour piano:
Fac-similé de l'exemplaire de Jane W. Stirling avec
annotations et corrections de l'auteur, Paris:
Bibliothèque Nationale, 1982. Library General Collection.
[fML96.4.C58 RR3]
17C. Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, Chopin vu
par ses élèves, Neuchâtel: Editions de la
Baconnière, 1979. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation. Library
General Collection. [ML410.C6E34 1979]
17D. Chopin, Esquisses pour une
méthode de piano. Edited by Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger.
Paris: Flammarion, 1993. Library General Collection. [MT222.C54
1993]
17E. Chopin's uncompleted draft for a piano
method, early 1840s? Reproduction. From Chopin, Esquisses pour
une méthode de piano. Edited by Jean-Jacques
Eigeldinger. Paris: Flammarion, 1993. Library General Collection.
[MT222.C54 1993]
17F. Chopin, Oeuvres pour piano: Fac-
similé de l'exemplaire de Jane W. Stirling avec annotations
et corrections de l'auteur, Paris: Bibliothèque
Nationale, 1982. Library General Collection. [ML96.4.C58 RR3]
In Stirling's copy of the Second Piano Concerto, op.
21, Chopin rewrote the left-hand part in the second movement to
fill in the harmony so that the movement could be played without
orchestral accompaniment.
Chopin published 159 works distributed among sixty-five opus
numbers, but he also composed more than seventy other works that he
chose not to publish. In some cases, he may have decided that the
music was not up to his standards or that it needed further
revision. Other works had been presented as personal gifts to close
friends, and Chopin may have considered it inappropriate to publish
them. On his deathbed, he asked that all his unpublished
manuscripts be destroyed, but that wish was not honored, and in
1853 his mother and sisters asked Julian Fontana, Chopin's friend
and amanuensis, to select from among them works that he considered
worthy and edit them for publication. He selected twenty-three
piano pieces, which he grouped into eight opus numbers (66-73).
From the time Fontana's edition appeared in 1855, musicians
suspected that he had added many expression marks and possibly even
made changes to the music. Unfortunately, the autograph manuscripts
he used were subsequently destroyed, so it is not possible to
determine the extent of his editorial intervention. Some of these
works survive in other copies that preserve substantially different
versions of the music. However, these were all presentation copies
that Chopin gave to friends and may lack revisions that Chopin made
later to the scores that remained in his possession. Therefore
Fontana's posthumous edition, whatever its shortcomings, remains
the most important source for these twenty-three works.
18A. Frédéric Chopin, ca. 1848.
Reproduction of oil painting. From Ernst Burger,
Frédéric Chopin: Eine Lebenschronik in Bildern
und Dokumenten, Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 1990. Olga and Paul
Menn Foundation. Library General Collection. [ML410.C6B89 1990]
18B. Julian Fontana, ca. 1860. Reproduction of
photograph. From Ernst Burger, Frédéric Chopin:
Eine Lebenschronik in Bildern und Dokumenten, Munich: Hirmer
Verlag, 1990. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation. Library General
Collection. [ML410.C6B89 1990]
- 18C. Chopin, Oeuvres posthumes pour piano
de Fréd. Chopin, publiés sur manuscrits originaux
avec autorisation de sa famille par Jules Fontana. Paris:
Meissonnier fils, [1855]. French first edition. Rose K. Platzman
Memorial Collection. [M22.C54P577 Rare]
- This copy once belonged to Pauline Viardot and is inscribed
"Hommage à Mme. P. Viardot. J. Fontana,
1857."
18D. Chopin, Oeuvres posthumes pour le
piano de Fréd. Chopin, publiés sur manuscrits
originaux avec autorisation de sa famille par Jules Fontana,
1re livraison: Fantaisie-Impromptu, op. 66. Berlin:
Adolph Martin Schlesinger, [1855]. German first edition.
[M25.C54F21 Rare]
18E. Byron Janis, The Most Dramatic Musical
Discovery of the Age, [S.l.]: Envolve Books, 1978. Library
General Collection. [M32.C54W43]
The manuscript reproduced here of Chopin's Waltz, op.
70, no. 1, presented to the French author Eugene Sue in 1833,
preserves a version of the work that differs in many respects from
the edition printed by Fontana.
18F. Chopin, Oeuvres posthumes pour le piano
de Fréd. Chopin, publiés sur manuscrits originaux
avec autorisation de sa famille par Jules Fontana, 5e
livraison: Trois valses, no. 3-5, [op. 70]. Berlin: Adolph
Martin Schlesinger, [1855]. German first edition. Rose K. Platzman
Memorial Collection. [M32.C54W7 Rare]
Beginning in 1840, Wessel began to issue Chopin's works, both new
ones and reprints of earlier ones, with collective title pages that
advertised a "complete edition" of the piano music. Since Wessel
had been the English publisher for nearly all of Chopin's music,
this collection was in fact the most complete edition available for
many years. In 1851 and 1852, respectively, Brandus (Schlesinger's
successor) and Breitkopf und Härtel began to reissue the
Chopin works from their catalogues in collected editions, although
neither of these was as comprehensive as Wessel's.
In the third quarter of the century, Breitkopf und Härtel
undertook monumental complete-works editions of great composers,
among them Bach, Handel, Beethoven, Schumann, Mozart, and
Palestrina. In 1878, a distinguished editorial committee that
included Johannes Brahms and Franz Liszt turned to Chopin as well.
The importance of this first critical edition, based primarily on
the manuscripts and German early editions in Breitkopf's archives,
has less to do with the accuracy of its musical text, which is
variable, than with the effect it had on Chopin's stature. By
including his works in this series, Breitkopf elevated Chopin, who
even in France had been considered a refined but lightweight
composer of salon music, into a pantheon previously reserved for
the greatest representatives of the Austro-German musical
tradition. German musicologists undertook serious studies of
Chopin's life and his music such as were then accorded to few
non-German musicians, and pianists and audiences began to take note
of Chopin's more serious, large-scale works, which had previously
been neglected.
19A. Display advertisement for Breitkopf &
Härtel's critical edition of Chopin, late 1870s? Reproduction.
From Oskar von Hase, Breitkopf & Härtel: Gedenkschrift
und Arbeitsbericht, 4th ed., Leipzig: Breitkopf &
Härtel, 1919. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation. Library General
Collection. [ML405.B84H3]
19B. Chopin, Souvenir de la Pologne:
7th set of mazurkas, op. 41. London: Wessel &
Co., [1840]. English first edition. Rose K. Platzman
Memorial Collection. [Not catalogued]
This edition formed No. 44 of "Wessel &
Co.'s complete collection of the compositions of
Frederic Chopin for the piano forte."
19C. Chopin, Deuxième impromptu en fa
dièse majeur, op. 36. Édition originale oeuvres
complètes pour le piano de Frédéric Chopin.
Paris: Brandus et Cie., [ca. 1851]. Rose K. Platzman
Memorial Collection. [M25.C54I345 Rare]
Brandus advertised this series as "the only authentic
edition, without changes or additions, published according to
proofs corrected by the author himself."
19D. Chopin, Deux nocturnes pour le piano, op.
48. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, [after 1851]. Rose
K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [Not catalogued]
Breitkopf's collection comprised "the Chopin piano
works that were published with proprietary rights by the firm of
Breitkopf und Härtel in Leipzig."
19E. Chopin, Werke: Erste kritisch
durchgesehene Gesamtausgabe. Leipzig: Breitkopf &
Härtel, [1878- 1880]. Library General Collection. [M3.C54 1878
RR3]
19F. Hugo Leichtentritt. Analyse der
Chopin'schen Klavierwerke. Berlin: Max Hesse, 1921. Library
General Collection. [ML410.C6L5]
Leichtentritt's two-volume study was one of the first
monographs devoted to the comprehensive analysis of a single
composer's works.
Copyright on Chopin's music expired for England in 1856, for France
in 1859, and for Germany in 1869. Not long after these dates, a
variety of publishers, eager to profit from Chopin's continuing
popularity, hired well-known pianists to edit his music for
contemporary performers. Pianists of the later nineteenth century
expected many details of expression to be explicit in the music, so
these performer-editors added phrasings, dynamics, articulations,
and fingerings that were absent in the editions supervised by
Chopin.
Although these editions do not derive directly from Chopin, some
of them preserve a link with traditions of performance that can be
traced back to the composer. Two editions, in particular, command
attention because they were prepared by professional pianists who
had studied with Chopin: Thomas Tellefsen (1823-1874) and Karol
Mikuli (1821-1897). Using early French editions as a starting
point, they inserted expression marks based on their notes and
recollections of remarks Chopin made during piano lessons.
Tellefsen had been Chopin's favorite student, but his edition,
published in 1860, was afflicted with many errors and had little
impact. On the other hand, Mikuli's edition appeared in 1879 and
has been popular with pianists ever since. His musical text is more
faithful to the early published scores than any other late-
nineteenth-century edition.
20A. Salon at the home of Princess Marcelline
Czartoryska, 1847 (?). Reproduction of pencil sketch by Cyprian
Kamil Norwid. From Wladyslaw Duleba, Chopin, Cracow:
Polskie wydawnictwo muzyczne, 1975. Library General Collection.
[ML410.C6D88]
Norwid, a distinguished Polish poet, was a friend of
Chopin. This sketch was probably made after Chopin's death in
recollection of a soirée in 1847. From left to right, Thomas
Tellefsen is depicted at the piano, with Albert Grzymala, Stanislaw
Szumlanski, and Chopin listening.
20B. Thomas Tellefsen, 1855. Reproduction of
photograph. From Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, Chopin vu par ses
élèves, Neuchâtel: Editions de la
Baconnière, 1979. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation. Library
General Collection. [ML410.C6E34 1979]
20C. Karol Mikuli, ca. 1860s? Reproduction of
daguerreotype. From Zofia Lissa, "Nicht publizierte Lemberger
Chopiniana," Annales Chopin 5 (1960). Olga and Paul Menn
Foundation. Library General Collection. [ML410.C6A53]
20D. Chopin, Bolero pour le piano-forte,
op. 19. Paris: Prilipp et Cie., [ca. 1834]. French
first edition (?). [M32.C54B64 Rare]
20E. Chopin, Bolero pour le piano, op.
19. Paris: S. Richault, [ca. 1860]. Edited by Thomas
Tellefsen. [M32.C54B63 Rare]
20F. Chopin, 2 nocturnes pour le piano, op.
55. Paris: Maurice Schlesinger, [1844]. French first edition.
Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [M25.C54N912 Rare]
20G. Chopin, Complete works for the piano,
book IV: Nocturnes. New York: G. Schirmer, 1948. Edited by
Karol Mikuli. Library General Collection. [M22.C54N81]
Several editors who had no personal connection with Chopin prepared
editions from printed copies of the music that Chopin had annotated
for his students. The German pianist Hermann Scholtz (1845-1918), a
prominent teacher and exponent of Chopin's music, was the first,
relying for his 1879 edition on scores that had belonged to Mlle.
R. de Könneritz and Georges Mathias. These annotated sources
have not survived, so it is difficult to assess how much in
Scholtz's edition actually originated with Chopin. Some musical
variants may indeed stem from these student copies, but the range
of expression marks goes well beyond what is found in other
annotated scores and probably reflects Scholtz's personal tastes.
In 1932, Edouard Ganche (1880-1945) brought out a scholarly
edition based on a selection of autograph manuscripts and Jane
Stirling's collection of annotated French editions. He was
convinced that the Stirling scores represented Chopin's final,
systematic revision of his music, and so did not take other primary
sources into consideration. Musicians and scholars respected
Ganche's edition for its stated intent of adhering to the chosen
source material without additions or modifications. Unfortunately,
recent analysis of the Stirling copies has revealed that Ganche did
not always represent accurately what he found there.
21A. Frédéric Chopin, May 2,
1847. Reproduction of crayon drawing by Franz Xaver Winterhalter.
From Ernst Burger, Frédéric Chopin: Eine
Lebenschronik in Bildern und Dokumenten, Munich: Hirmer
Verlag, 1990. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation. Library General
Collection. [ML410.C6B89 1990]
21B. Edouard Ganche, ca. 1910. Reproduction of
photograph. From Frédéric Chopin, Oeuvres pour
piano: Fac- similé de l'exemplaire de Jane W. Stirling avec
annotations et corrections de l'auteur, Paris:
Bibliothèque Nationale, 1982. Library General Collection.
[ML96.4.C58 RR3]
21C. Chopin, Polonaisen. Leipzig: C.F.
Peters, [1879?]. Edited by Hermann Scholtz. Gift of Thomas Cottle.
Library General Collection. [M32.C54P7]
21D. Chopin, Deux polonaises pour le piano,
op. 40. Paris: E. Troupenas et Cie., [1840]. French
first edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [M32.C54P809
Rare]
21E. Jane Stirling's copy of Chopin's
Quatre mazurkas pour le piano, op. 24 in the Paris:
Maurice Schlesinger, [1835?], edition, annotated by Chopin.
Reproduction. From Chopin, Oeuvres pour piano:
Fac-similé de l'exemplaire de Jane W. Stirling avec
annotations et corrections de l'auteur, Paris:
Bibliothèque Nationale, 1982. Library General Collection.
[ML96.4.C58 RR3]
21F. Chopin, The Oxford Original Edition of
Frédéric Chopin, volume 3. New York: Oxford
University Press, [1932]. Edited by Edouard Ganche. Library General
Collection. [M3.1.C54 1932 RR3]
Ganche incorporates fingerings (in the ante-penultimate
measure and elsewhere) and phrasings (extension of a slur from the
third bar to the fourth bar of the second system) from Stirling's
copy. However, he ignores the musical changes written into that
score in the sixth and eighth bars from the end.
Most Chopin editions of the later nineteenth century were prepared
by performers who were renowned either as teachers or interpreters
of Chopin. Their priority was not fidelity to the authentic sources
of the music, but conveying through musical notation the way they
thought the music should sound. These editions to not help to
discover Chopin's intentions, but they reveal how Chopin's music
was heard and understood in the late-Romantic period. Antoine
François Marmontel (1816-1898), who was for many years
professor of piano at the Paris Conservatory and wrote a number of
books on contemporary pianists and piano technique, produced a
fairly restrained edition in 1867. In contrast, Karl Klindworth
(1830-1916), one of Franz Liszt's most brilliant pupils, made free
use of phrasing, articulation, dynamic, and pedaling to communicate
his personal conception of the music. His edition, originally
published between 1873 and 1876, was widely used for several
generations.
22A. Advertisement from Chopin, Oeuvres de
Fr. Chopin, revues doigtées et soigneusement
corrigées d'après [sic] les éditions
de Paris, Londres et Leipsic par Charles Klindworth, [Vol. 3:]
Vingt-quatre préludes, [op.] 28. Moscow:
P. Jurgenson, 1875. [M25.C54P84 Rare]
22B. Pupils of Franz Liszt, 1865. Reproduction
of photograph by Joseph Albert. From Ernst Burger, Franz Liszt:
A Chronicle of his Life in Pictures and Documents, Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1989. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation.
Library General Collection. [fML410.L8B874 1989]
The three men in this picture, Hans von Bülow,
Carl Tausig, and Karl Klindworth, were Liszt's favorite piano
students.
22C. Antoine Marmontel, early 1890s? Reproduction
of photograph. From Louis de Fourcaud, Arthur Pougin, and
Léon Pradel, La Salle Pleyel, Paris:
Librairies-Imprimeries Réunies, 1893. Olga and Paul Menn
Foundation. Library General Collection. [ML404.F77]
22D. Antoine Marmontel, Conseils d'un
professeur sur l'enseignement technique et l'esthétique du
piano. Paris: Heugel, [1876]. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation.
Library General Collection. [MT220.M35]
22E. Chopin, Grande polonaise brillante
précédée d'un Andante spianato pour le piano
avec accompt d'orchestre, op. 22. Paris: Maurice
Schlesinger, [1836]. French first edition. Rose K. Platzman
Memorial Collection. [M37.C54P79 Rare]
22F. Chopin, Grande polonaise avec Andante,
op. 22. Paris: Heugel et Cie., [after 1867]. Edited
by Antoine Marmontel. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [Not
catalogued]
Marmontel closely followed the French first edition,
adding only fingerings and prefatory comments about musical
style.
22G. Chopin, Vingt-quatre préludes pour
le piano, oeuvre 28. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel,
[1839]. First German edition. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation.
[M25.C54P8 Rare]
22H. Chopin, Oeuvres de Fr. Chopin, revues
doigtées et soigneusement corrigées
d'après [sic] les éditions de Paris, Londres
et Leipsic par Charles Klindworth, [Vol. 3:] Vingt-quatre
préludes, [op.] 28. Moscow: P. Jurgenson,
1875. [M25.C54P84 Rare]
In the early part of this century, editors of Chopin began to
exhibit greater respect for original manuscript and printed
sources. Raoul Pugno (1852-1914), the most brilliant French pianist
at the turn of the century, based his 1901 edition on what he
called "original traditions," which probably reflected his
background as a student of Chopin's pupil Georges Mathias. He did
not hesitate to supply fingerings, pedalings, and dynamics where he
thought they had been omitted in the early editions, but his
additions are quite restrained compared to editions by earlier
performers.
During the 1930s and 1940s, Alfred Cortot (1877-1962), one of
the leading Chopin interpreters of his generation, prepared
editions designed for teaching students to play Chopin. His
didactic approach required him to be prescriptive about certain
mechanical details of performance, but he confined his interpretive
opinions to footnotes, where he discussed stylistic problems at
considerable length.
The edition undertaken in 1935 and completed in 1963 by the
Fryderyk Chopin Institute of Warsaw under the leadership of Ludwik
Bronarski (1890-1975) was the first to acknowledge the principle of
examining all the available primary sources. Unfortunately,
Bronarski and his coeditors chose whatever readings suited them
across a wide range of manuscript and printed material, creating a
conflation that sometimes does not accurately reflect any of the
original sources.
23A. Chopin monument in the
Père-Lachaise cemetery, Paris, 1850. Photograph of sculpture
by Jean Baptiste Auguste Clésinger. From Ernst Burger,
Frédéric Chopin: Eine Lebenschronik in Bildern
und Dokumenten, Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 1990. Olga and Paul
Menn Foundation. Library General Collection. [ML410.C6B89 1990]
23B. Raoul Pugno, early 1890s? Reproduction of
photograph. From Louis de Fourcaud, Arthur Pougin, and Léon
Pradel, La Salle Pleyel, Paris: Librairies-Imprimeries
Réunies, 1893. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation. Library
General Collection. [ML404.F77]
23C. Bernard Gavoty, Alfred Cortot,
Paris: Éditions Buchet/Chastel, 1977. Gift of the Visiting
Committee to the Department of Music. Library General Collection.
[ML417.C8G28]
In these two photographs from the 1920s, Alfred Cortot
is seen performing with violinist Jacques Thibaud and in Hollywood
with actor Buck Jones.
23D. Chopin, 3 mazurkas pour piano, op.
59. Paris: Brandus et Cie., [1846]. French first
edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [M32.C54M574 Rare]
23E. Chopin, Trois mazourkas pour le piano,
op. 59. Berlin: Stern & Co., [1845]. German
first edition. Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [Not
catalogued]
23F. Chopin, Sämtliche Pianoforte-
Werke, vol. 2. Vienna: Universal Edition, [1901]. Edited by
Raoul Pugno. Library General Collection. [M3.1.C54P9 RR3]
23G. Chopin, Mazurkas, 3me
volume. Paris: Éditions Salabert, 1943. Edited by
Alfred Cortot. Library General Collection. [M32.C54M415]
23H. Chopin, Complete works, [vol. X]:
Mazurkas for piano. Seventh edition. Warsaw: Instytut
Fryderyka Chopina, 1964. Edited by Ludwik Bronarski and
Jósef Turczynski. Library General Collection.
[M32.C54M41]
Since the mid-twentieth century, scholarly approaches to editing
nineteenth-century music have been dominated by the ideal of an
Urtext, or primary source text. The goal has been to edit
music according to the final form in which it was left by the
composer, on the assumption that this represents the most finished
concept. All earlier sources are examined and major variants
recorded in separate critical notes, but their readings are not
included in the edition itself unless they correct obvious errors
in the final version.
Chopin's music does not lend itself easily to this approach.
Even when the chronology of sources can be established, there is
often no evolutionary progression from one state of the music to
the next. It is even debatable whether Chopin ever considered his
works completely finished. Ewald Zimmermann has been preparing
Urtext editions of Chopin for G. Henle Verlag since 1961.
Zimmermann favors German first editions or the manuscripts on which
they were based because the manuscript copies sent to Germany were
often the last ones copied, even when the French first editions
contain later revisions that Chopin made at the proof stage.
Moreover, Zimmermann sometimes silently adopts readings that he
considers superior from sources other than his principal text.
The most recent attempt at a critical edition, the Polish
"National Edition," has been appearing since 1967 under the
editorial supervision of Jan Ekier. It illustrates further the
difficulties inherent in Urtext editions of Chopin, as
recent scholarship has already challenged some of the source
chronology that Ekier relied on for selecting his base texts.
Scholars have come to realize that a definitive edition of Chopin's
music may not be possible or even desirable. Nonetheless, new
editions will continue to be produced as long as music lovers play,
study, and listen to Chopin, and the primary sources for his music
will always be the early printed editions.
24A. Logo of the International Federation of
Chopin Societies. Reproduction from Chopin in the World
1994. Library General Collection. [ML410.C6C573]
24B. Elzbieta Artysz, "The Fryderyk Chopin
Complete Work National Edition," Chopin in the World 1994.
Library General Collection. [ML410.C6C573]
24C. Monica Steegman, In Quest of the
Composer's Last Will: Günter Henle's Urtext Editions,
Munich: G. Henle Verlag, [1970s.] Library General Collection.
[Music Vertical File S]
24D. Chopin, Ballade pour le piano, op.
52. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, [1843]. German first
edition. Olga and Paul Menn Foundation. [M25.C54B4 Rare]
24E. Chopin, Balladen. Munich: G.
Henle Verlag, 1976. Edited by Ewald Zimmermann, with fingerings by
Hans-Martin Theopold. Library General Collection. [M22.C54B41]
24F. Chopin, 4e ballade pour
piano, op. 52. Paris: Maurice Schlesinger, [ca. 1843]. French
first edition? Rose K. Platzman Memorial Collection. [Not
catalogued]
24G. Chopin, Ballady. Wydanie Narodowe
Dziel/ Fryderyka Chopina, series A, vol. 1. Warsaw: Polskie
wydawnictwo muzyczne, 1967. Edited by Jan Ekier. Olga and Paul Menn
Foundation. Library General Collection. [M3.C54 1967 RR3]
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