What kind of score for Chopin music? From manuscript to prints

The use of a facsimile score alongside a source edition helps the pianist to get as close as possible to the composer’s original idea and intended performance.

.To answer the question posed in the title, we have to trace back the history of the publication of Chopin’s works. From the moment he left Poland in 1830, Chopin published his scores simultaneously with two or three publishers (in France and Germany; or in France, Germany and England). They had to be published at the same time because of the legal requirements regarding the distribution of printed music. The process also required several manuscripts on which the various editions were based. Crucially, the manuscripts from roughly the same period  differ in some details, which means that Chopin himself allowed for different variants of his works. However, such variants always originated with the composer.

The publishers of the first editions of Chopin’s works retained copyright for 30 years after his death. When this expired, the market was flooded with the composer’s works, published both collectively and individually. It is important to remember that, in those days, the original scores were treated with more freedom than they are today. When preparing the scores for publication, the editors would made all sorts of corrections and changes, especially when it comes to the so-called performance directions (tempo, dynamic shifts, sound production, pedalling), and sometimes even the pitch and number of notes. These changes reflected either the prevailing performance style of the time or the preferred style of an individual editor, who was usually a pianist, but they had nothing to do with the original intention of the composer. Even though such editions, which in fact clouded the composer’s hints for the performer, are still in circulation today, they are not a go-to source for those who want to see the score as the author intended it. It was really only after the Second World War that there was a growing awareness of the need for editions of musical works that would provide reliable source material based on a thorough analysis of the composer’s score, rather than its interpretation by editors. Several such collective editions of Chopin’s works have been published so far, including the National Edition of the Works of Fryderyk Chopin, edited by Professor Jan Ekier.

A comparison of the source editions shows that the scores they contain differ in some details. There are two reasons for this. As I have mentioned above, the original manuscripts themselves may diverge in minor or even major ways. On the other hand, some fragments need to be interpreted, explained and evaluated in order to decide whether the discrepancy between the scores is the result of a deliberate intervention or an error. How such fragments are interpreted and dilemmas resolved is of course subjective. Regardless of such subtleties, source editions offer the possibility of coming into contact with a score that is much closer to the composer’s intentions than the aforementioned late 19th and early 20th century editions.

.For an even closer experience of the composer’s message, one can turn to Chopin’s manuscript scores that are now published in facsimile by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute. We know that some pianists use them, although they are sometimes difficult to read and therefore not very practical. One thing is certain, however: the use of a facsimile score alongside a source edition helps the pianist to get as close as possible to the composer’s original idea and intended performance.

Zofia Chechlińska