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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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