Chopin’s editions Arrangements of Chopin’s music Digital documents
The Fryderyk Chopin digital collection highlights the "chopiniana" of the National Library in Warsaw. The collection comprises various printed editions of Chopin’s pieces, like the first printed edition of his Rondo Op. 1 issued by A. Brzezina in 1825 or early Paris editions, including Rondo à la krakowiak Op. 14 published by M. Schlesinger in 1834. It also contains books on the composer’s life and his work, including a study by Robert Schumann about Chopin, a publication of the great composer and pianist Franz Liszt, or dissertations by Jerzy Maria Smoter and Piotr Szumiński on the alleged correspondence of Chopin with Countess Delfina Potocka. The collection includes also monumental monographs by Mieczysław Tomaszewski, Tadeusz Andrzej Zieliński, Maria Gordon-Smith and George Richard Marek, essays by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz and Ryszard Przybylski, guidebooks following Chopin’s footsteps, like Warszawskim szlakiem Chopina (Along the Chopin’s Warsaw Trail) by Zofia Jeżewska.
The upcoming additions will contain digital reproductions of Chopin’s manuscripts, his correspondence and other memorabilia connected with the composer.
The project has been funded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
To display the list of digital documents from this collection click "Publications list" in the menu on the left side of the screen
Presentation of collection: Mariola Nałęcz, Włodzimierz Pigła. English translation: Katarzyna Diehl
Chopin’s editions
Identification of the first Chopin’s editions on account of the specific features of the first half of the 19th century music publications poses a number of difficulties. They were not marked by dates, also did not contain information about the print runs and sequence of impressions. Proofreading or changes in the music scores and the titles were often made for especially commissioned impressions. Only full factographic data and the possibility to compare the same edition’s copies enables actual specification of the individual editions plus identification of the sequence of impressions, additional print runs and their correct chronology. A researcher of Chopin’s printed editions becomes a true sleuth tracking down any, even very minor differences while comparing the individual copies. These range from errors on title pages and in the headlines through permutations in music scores to various lithographic signs, be they round, square, star-shaped or rhomboid, to barely visible, hand-written printers’ notes.
The first publishers of Chopin’s compositions were two Warsaw-based firms: the engraving workshop run by Father Izydor Józef Cybulski and the lithographic workshop run by Antoni Brzezina.
The Polonaise in G minor composed by Chopin at the age of seven and published by the Cybulski’s workshop in 1817 was a gift for Chopin’s friend Jan Białobłocki, and was dedicated to Wiktoria Skarbek. Later on young Fryderyk entrusted the task of printing his Rondo in C minor and Rondo à la Mazur in F major written in mid 1820s to his friend Antoni Brzezina. The two latter compositions printed later by foreign publishers received the numbers of opuses: No. 1 and No. 5. An unspecified lithographic atelier printed on loose leaves two mazurkas coming from the same period : in G major and B major. Most probably, following the advice of his teacher, Jóżef Elsner, in 1830 Chopin entrusted a Vienna-based publisher Tobias Haslinger with publishing his multi-part compositions. However, that first approach did not result in any permanent cooperation; only the publisher’s son eventually published the earlier forwarded works after Chopin’s death. In 1831 the artist started cooperation with another Vienna-based publishing house run by Pietro Mechetti, where he published, among others, Prélude in C sharp minor Op. 45, PolonaisesOp. 3 and Op. 44, and Mazurkas Op. 50.
Chopin, after he arrived in Paris in September 1831, tried – in accordance with the then emerging custom – to obtain favourable financial terms from selling copyright, among others through binding the author’s fee with the publishers’ territorial distribution rights (most of his pieces had been published at one time in three language versions: French, German and English). 
The main three publishers of Chopin’s music in the 1830s were: Maurice Schlesinger in Paris, the Breitkopf and Härtel company in Leipzig and R. Ch. Wessel in London. Schlesinger was the first publisher who started reselling the copyrights on Chopin’s works to other Paris-based publishers, such as Brandus, Lemoine, Pleyel, nevertheless Chopin’s cooperation with his main Paris-based publisher continued to develop smoothly. Chopin took part in the editorial work prior to publication of his pieces and had the possibility of very detailed proofreading in the course of the printing process, which may be proved by the correspondence that has survived. Also Schlesinger mentioned it himself in a letter to Kistner dated September 24, 1832, in which he wrote about the composer: “... everything that he sells to us is ready, I have had it many times in my hands, but with him there is a difference between the delivered and the completed…”.
Also other European and American publishing houses showed interest in publishing Chopin’s compositions. In 1836 Francesco Lucca of Milan started to publish the Italian edition of works of the then already widely respected composer. Publishing houses in Sankt Petersburg and in Moscow (M. Bernard, C.F. Holtz, Odeon, P. Lenhold) brought out individual, most popular pieces, like Valses Op. 18 and 42, or Mazurka Op. 7 No. 1.
In letters that Chopin wrote to his friends, like Julian Fontana, the main copyist of his compositions, and then the editor of the posthumous edition (pieces from Opuses 66–74), Chopin often complained about the unreliability of editors and gave vent to his irritation. The most frequent reasons of his annoyance were titles changed by publishers, particularly Wessel, and lack of agreement in financial matters. The latter were of crucial importance due to his health problems. Hence he made attempts to contact also other publishing houses, like E. Troupenas, J.L. Chabal and F. Kistner.
In 1864-1867 Gebethner and Wolff published the first Polish six-volume edition of all Chopin’s piano works. The edition featured separate publication marks for each opus or composition, and triple pagination which enabled multiple impressions from the same printing plates of the whole edition, its selected cycles, opuses or individual compositions. However, the publication did not win significant popularity, though – according to his student Marcelina Czartoryska’s account - the way it had been edited by Jan Kleczyński - it was designed as a reconstruction of the primary original version of Chopin’s compositions. The additions made by Rudolf Strobel were mainly of a didactic nature. The Aleksander Michałowski edition of 1924 was a repetition of the 19th century editions of the Munich-based J. Aibel publishing company authored by Hans Bülow.
After the copyrights to the early Chopin’s editions expired, the 1880s saw a plethora of various editions with special comments added to the titles. These additions taking the form of such statements as seule edition authentique or d'aprs les notions de l'auteur were supposed to confirm the most authentic version accepted by the author himself. Numerous critical versions and editions appeared, among others by Ch. Klindworth, H. Scholtz, K. Mikuli, S. Jadassohn, E. Mertke. Each of them provided an attempt to create a compromised version of the music text that would prove acceptable for various milieus of musicians and musicologists or performers continuing the interpretation traditions coming down directly from pianists who were Chopin’s students. Particularly noteworthy are very popular H. Scholtz’s editions published by C. F. Peters, which have set an everlasting standard of editorial and publishing work.
After World War II Polish editions have become more widely known, like the edition in preparation already before the war and finally gradually published since 1949 by the Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne PWM as Collected Works based on the autographs and first editions, edited by Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Ludwik Bronarski and Józef Turczyński, and offered with a Braille version. The multi-volume publication that has been continued ever since has had over thirty impressions until now. In 1951 PWM in agreement with the Fryderyk Chopin Society in Warsaw launched a series titled Facsimile Editions of Autographs of Fryderyk Chopin held in various sites, offered with Władysław Hordyński’s commentaries. Uniquely valuable for performers and researchers of Chopin’s heritage is the National Edition of the Works of Fryderyk Chopin published since 1967 and edited by Jan Ekier.
An interesting and important initiative have become facsimiled editions of Fryderyk Chopin’s autographs from the National Library collections published every five years since 1985. During the award presentation ceremony of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition held in Warsaw every five years the award-winning performers are presented with a special award - a leather-bound copy of this edition. So far the following compositions have been published within the series: Four Mazurkas Op. 24 (1985), Polonaise-Fantasie, Op. 61 (1990), Two Nocturnes Op. 55 with a commentary by Wanda Bogdany-Popielowa, and Préludes Op. 28 (1999) with a commentary by Irena Poniatowska in cooperation with Zofia Czechlińska, and the second Nocturn in D flat major Op. 27 (2005) with an extensive commentary by Mieczysław Tomaszewski.
At present a long-term research and development project of the Fryderyk Chopin National Institute has at the same time become the most serious editorial endevour currently underway. Its goal is to publish all available Chopin’s compositions in a facsimile format as a series titled Works by Chopin. Facsimile Edition. It is assumed that each volume of the series will offer a fully-fledged scholarly commentary enabling the updating of source-based knowledge on Chopin. The first three published volumes of the series comprise the following works: Piano Concerto in F minor Op. 21, Sonata in H minor Op. 58 from the National Library collections and Mazurka in A flat major Op. 7 No. 4 from the Warsaw Music Society library.
With regard to unique, bibliophilic Chopin’s editions mention is due to a special, limited edition of 500 copies of the Piano Concerto in F minor, edited by the Bernardinum publishing house of the Pelplin diocese in cooperation with the National Fryderyk Chopin Institute and the Japanese publishing company Yushodo from Tokyo. The publication is printed on a specially manufactured paper with recreated water marks and parametres matching the work’s manuscript autograph. The binding was executed in a way to appear like a 19th century cover of the manuscript held until 1937 in the archive of the Lepizig-based Breitkopf and Härtel company (in the National Library collections since 1938). The facsimile is placed in an impressive case made of leather – remindful of a closed piano keyboard - with a gilt facsimile of the composer’s signature. The edition set comes complete with a commentary by one of the best Chopin scholars Professor Jan Ekier and a CD containing the recording of a performance by Artur Rubinstein accompanied by orchestra conducted by Witold Rowicki.
The tremendous popularity of Chopin’s work made him one of the most frequently published composers in the world. Though typical 19th century salon music does not exist anymore, the universality of Chopin’s music has continued to provide motivation for publishers to produce constantly new editions. The original Chopin’s compositions focus on virtuoso pianistic display which poses great demands on performers. The great number of music teaching publications and simplified scores for unprofessional musicians does not come as a surprise. Interestingly, these are often publications where the scope of changes made in the original score has not been specified and without a deeper insight into the music content there is no way to evaluate the publication’s standards.
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Arrangements of Chopin’s music
Instrumental and vocal arrangements of Fryderyk Chopin’s compositions hold a prominent position in the reception of his music. The practice of transcribing the musical pieces was very popular in the 19th century; it evolved from the earlier practices of adapting vocal pieces for organ and other instruments whereby the foundations of artistic instrumental music were laid. The clear prevalence of piano adaptations results from the popularity that the instrument enjoyed in the musical culture of the 19th century. It was a very common practice at the time that simplified versions were prepared, either left- or right-hand, or four-hand, or for two or more pianos. Violin, cello or flute adaptations with piano accompaniment were equally fashionable. Also vocal arrangements, most often for voice and piano, and for choir ensembles were very common. This applies also to transcriptions of Chopin’s compositions. Since 1830, thus for over a century and a half, about 1, 500 musicians have authored more than three thousand instrumentations. These figures tell a lot about the impact of Chopin’s music. He ranks among the most popular composers in the world. They also prove the unwaning interest in the oeuvre of the composer who authored over 230 works that have survived until today, mostly small in size, and predominantly for solo piano. The fact that such a big number of Chopin’s works survived may certainly be considered an unprecented historical, sociological and aesthetic phenomenon.
Chopin’s music became increasingly influential among contemporary composers. Initially this interest unleashed mostly inapt attempts to create own compositions modelled upon Chopin’s themes, e.g. the pieces by Antoni Orłowski. Soon, however, famous European, or even world-class composers became inspired by Chopin’s style (Kalkbrenner, Lipiński). Those were not only foremost musicians in their own time. They were also one generation older than Chopin. The German pianist and composer living in France, Friedrich Kalkbrenner (1785-1849) used the melody from Mazurka in B major Op. 7 No. 1 in his Variations brillantes Op. 120, published in 1833. Karol Lipiński (1790-1861), in turn, transcribed for violin and piano five of Chopin’s compositions (two Nocturnes, Op. 9, two Polonaises Op. 26 and Tarantelle Op. 43), published still in Chopin’s lifetime.
The universal appeal of Chopin’s music resulted from the distinctive features of some of Chopin’s compositions, which though written for piano appear to have been written for a melodic instrument or a singing voice. Chopin’s melodics being the most audible and expressive feature of his compositions provide the scope for a variety of performance incarnations. Small lyrical compositions featuring a well-exposed melodic curve, including some études, and préludes, and especially mazurkas, nocturnes and valses, gained numerous admirers among instrumentalists and singers.
The extent to which the phenomenon of producing Chopin’s music’s transcriptions developed was shown in detail in the Katalog dzieł Fryderyka Chopina (Catalogue of Works by Fryderyk Chopin) by Józef Michał Chomiński and Teresa Dalila Turło. The Catalogue published in 1990 provides an extensive bibliography showing that nearly all Chopin’s compositions published in the composer’s lifetime and after his death lived to see often very numerous transcriptions. Notably, not only instrumentalists or vocal artists adapted Chopin’s pieces to extend their repertoire. Chopin’s music inspired such well-known composers as Franz Liszt, Carl Reinecke, Camille Saint-Saëns, Władysław Żeleński, Adam Münchheimer, Mily Balakiriev, Nicolai Rimski-Korsakov, Zygmunt Noskowski, Henryk Jarecki, Piotr Maszyński, Alexander Glazunov, Feliks Starczewski, Max Reger, Mieczysław Karłowicz, Feliks Nowowiejski, Aleksander Gedike, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Norman Dello Joio or Andrzej Koszewski.
The first transcriptions of Chopin’s pieces were four-hand piano arrangements, published almost in parallel with the original version, and commissioned by music publishers, more often than not to anonymous authors. This practice was not alien to Chopin himself who also authored several such transcriptions of his compositions. 
Tarantelle Op. 43 published by Schuberth in Hamburg in 1841 provides an interesting example.
Other transcriptions include for instance an arrangement for two pianos of the Allegro de concert Op. 46 made by Karol Mikuli (1819-1897), Chopin’s student, a renowned pianist and teacher, and editor of Chopin’s works. Quite another arrangement for two pianos is an interesting parallel combination of two études in G flat major (Op. 10 No. 5 and Op. 25 No. 9) titled A Study by an American pianist Guy Maier (New York, J. Fischer 1927). A well-known German composer and pianist of Polish descent, Xaver Scharwenka, a noted editor of Chopin’s piano works, wrote a two-piano version of Scherzo in B flat minor Op. 31, published by the Leipzig-based publishing house of Breitkopf and Härtel in 1894.
Of the very numerous group of simplified piano arrangements geared toward intermediate pianists or students particularly notable is the transcription of three valses by a Belgian pianist and composer Jean Louis Gobbaerts: Valse brillante Op. 34 No. 1, Valse posthume (in E minor), and Valse Op. 64. Very popular were the arrangements by Jan Łusakowski, i.a. Prélude in A major and Mazurka in F minor Op. 7 No. 3 published several times by the Warsaw-based Arct publishing house: in 1891, in 1894 and (link 4466) around 1910.
Franz Liszt transcribed for piano six of Chopin’s Polish songs 6 Chants polonais Op. 74 which became an outstanding accomplishment of Chopin’s music piano transcription published in 1860 in Berlin by Schlesinger. Contrary to the publisher’s description those were by no means simple transcriptions. They were genuine, virtuoso-style paraphrases and in fact new pieces that had been inspired by Chopin’s Polish songs. Another interesting case are the two transcriptions of the song Lecą liście z drzewa (Leaves are Falling from a Tree) (Op. 74 No. 17; published as Chant du tombeau Op. 75 by Schlesinger in Berlin), authored by a German pianist and composer Rudolf Hasert (1826-1877). One of them was a simplified version (facilité), and the other a concerto one (zum Concertvortrag). Also a German composer and organist Ernst David Wagner (1806-1883) wrote a simplified piano version of the same song under the same title. He was otherwise known from the popular and frequently renewed transcription of the song The Maiden’s Wish (German and Polish editions from the years: ca. 1862, ca. 1870, ca. 1880, ca. 1889. Quite notable is a collection of ten songs in easy piano arrangements by Zygmunt Noskowski, published as one-off titles in 1903 of the Fryderyk Chopin for Young People series by M. Arct’s publishing firm, with several later impressions. These include: Bardzo raniuchno (Piosnka litewska) (Early in the Morning. A Lithuanian Song), Nie ma czego trzeba (There is Nothing that You Need), Śliczny chłopiec (A Love of a Boy), Wojak (Soldier). On the other hand, the popular song titled Hulanka (Merrymaking) (Op. 74 No. 4) came out in the interwar period as part of the Music Library series (No. 180) in a piano arrangement with lyrics by M. Skolimowski.
In the last decade of the 19th century Polish publishers (Arct, Gebethner and Wolff, Idzikowski) often made use of easy arrangements of Chopin’s compositions and put them in a variety of popular series (Choix de Compositions, Les Chrysanthèmes, Les Deux Amies, Les Fleurs du Violoniste, The Young Musician etc.).
The early years of the 20th century saw growing popularity of melodeclamations, most often with piano accompaniment. Popular Chopin’s music was used in several such pieces. The best known melodeclamation was titled Dzwony (Bells) to the lyrics by Kornel Ujejski in the piano arrangement written by Feliks Starczewski, published in Kiev by L. Idzikowski in 1902, with several later impressions. A Leipzig-based publisher Robert Forberg published in 1908 a cycle of five melodramatic transcriptions of Chopin’s music by Richard Burmeister which comprised a transcription of Bells with the German text Ein Bagräbnis. Less known is a melodeclamation based on two Chopin’s préludes (No. 7 titled Kwiat jabłoni (Apple Blossom) and No. 20 titled Krwawy cień (A Bloody Shadow) with Maria Fedorowiczowa’s text (published in 1935 by the A. Kaempf School of Music in Tarnów).
Paraphrases and variations for piano inspired by Chopin’s themes were composed among others by Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Aleksander Michałowski, Ferruccio Busoni, Leopold Godowski, Sergey Rachmaninov, Max Reger and the Spanish composer Federico Mompou. Printed editions of most of these compositions are part of the National Library collections.
A list of composers of orchestral compositions based on Chopin’s music includes Władysław Żeleński, Mily Balakiriev, Zygmunt Noskowski, Alexsander Glazunov, Dymitr Rogal-Lewicki, Maurice Keller. Also a Gebethner and Wolff interwar edition of an anonymously arranged version for wind/brass band of the well-known Polonaise A major provides a good example in this category.
The second half of the 20th century saw jazz and pop arrangements of Chopin’s music, notably Chopin’s Mazurkas arranged in the 1970s by Ryszard Szeremeta for the Novi-Singers vocal quartet, as well as contemporary instrumental arrangements by Leszek Możdżer.
The transcription of Nocturne in E flat major Op. 9 made by the famous Spanish virtuoso Pablo Sarasate enjoys unchanging popularity among violinists. Also generally acknowledged as successful are Paweł Kochański’s transcriptions of Mazurka in E major Op. 6 No. 3 and Nocturne in H major Op. 62 No. 1. Mention is also due to a transcription of two valses (Op. 64 No. 1 and Op. 69 No. 2) by a well-known interwar violinist and conductor Józef Ozimiński (1877-1945). A paraphrase of Mazurka in B major Op. 7 by a Belgian violinist Cesar Thomson, published in Brussels in 1910 provides an example of a typical free arrangement of Chopin’s music. Apart from artistic instrumentations, scores of simplified transcriptions appeared, intended for amateur piano players or students. Well-established German firms, notably Litolff and Peters, published such transcriptions in sizeable editions, especially in the latter quarter of the 19th century. Litolff and Peters published for instance a three-volume collection of violin transcriptions of Valses, Mazurkas and Nocturnes by a now forgotten German violinist Friedrich Hermann (1828-1907), whereas Litolff published a collection of valses transcribed by August Schulz (1837-1909).
Regarding cello transcriptions particularly valuable are those by Alexander Glazunov, especially two études: E flat minor Op. 10 and C sharp minor Op. 25. In Poland on the threshold of the 20th century numerous cello transcriptions were authored by Henryk Waghalter (1869-1958). A piece that has become particularly well known, i.e. the Funeral March of the Sonata in B flat minor was published a number of times in the Les Fleurs du Violoniste series by Gebethner and Wolff: ca. 1910, ca. 1913, ca. 1922.
Also the Prélude in A major has become very popular, with a violin part transcribed by the series’ editor Maurycy Rosen. Mention is also due to cello and chamber transcriptions (for a piano trio). The latter include Polonaise in C minor Op. 40 No. 2 arranged by a celloist and music teacher of Czech descent Antoni Cinek (1863-1933). Just like violin transcriptions, Litolff and Peters also published collections of cello transcriptions of Chopin’s compositions in a large number of copies. A renowned celloist Leopold Grützmacher (1835-1900) published a two-volume collection of eighteen nocturnes at the H. Litolff’s Verlag.
Popular are also flute transcriptions of Chopins’ valses produced by a German flutist, Emil Prill (1867-1940), in his own time a highly esteemed musician.
In vocal music twelve Chopin’s mazurkas arranged for voice and piano still in his lifetime by a famous opera singer and composer Paulina Viardot (1821-1910) have won marked interest. The Viardot version, with the French text by Louis Pomey, was published in 1862 by a French firm Gérard, and soon (1866) the Gebethner and Wolff company published it with a parallel Polish text by Jan Chęciński. There have been many reimpressions of this popular transcription, among others the Plainte d'amour mazurka. Slightly later (1868) the Paris-based company Heugel brought out vocal transcriptions arranged by Luigi Bordese (1815-1886), an Italian composer, active in Paris. Most of those transcriptions including 11 mazurkas, Nocturne in A flat major Op. 32, Valse in D flat major Op. 64 and a fragment of Ballad in F major were published in 1899 by Gebethner and Wolff with the Polish text by Piotr Maszyński. What is interesting Bordese’s arrangements were intended for a vocal duo with piano accompaniment. The list of mazurkas includes A Sleigh Ride, Abandoned and Matchmaking.
At this point mention is due to the tremendous success of vocal transcriptions of Étude in E major (Op. 10 No. 3). It has become one of the three most often transcribed Chopin’s compositions (over 150 arrangements), and particularly successful in the first half of the 20th century was a transcription in Idzikowski’s edition by a Russian author Ilya Tumenev (1855-1927) with the Polish lyrics by M. Józefowicz titled Regret. The tendency to poeticise Chopin’s music, observed still in his lifetime, has only increased after his death. Many authors followed the Pauline Viardot’s example and arranged Chopin’s works for voice and piano. A Warsaw-based publisher Józef Kaufmann published eight such transcriptions written by well-known Polish composers: Ludwik Grossman, Emanuel Kania (the Whose Guilt mazurka), Adam Münchheimer, Józef Nowakowski or Karol Studziński (the Girl in Love mazurka).
A world-scale phenomenon regarding the number of transcriptions has become the Funeral March, the third movement of the Sonata in B flat minor. This composition, incidentally written two years before the rest of the Sonata, lived to see nearly 400 instrumental and vocal adaptations. Its orchestral arrangement by Ernest Reber was performed during Chopin’s funeral in October 1849. A list of later orchestral transcriptions includes those by Franciszek Przybylski and Marian S. Różycki, Polish musicans active in the United States, in the W. H. Sajewski editions published in the 1920s in Chicago. The same publisher brought out popular transcriptions of The Dream, or Prélude in A major Op. 28 with Miłosz Kotarbiński’s text, first time published in Warsaw in 1891.
Some transcriptions by such composers as Nikolai Rimski-Korsakov, Zygmunt Noskowski, Henryk Jarecki, Edward Elgar, Mieczysław Karłowicz, Igor Stravinsky, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and many others have never been published and remained in manuscript. In tha case of Karłowicz, whose autographs had been mostly lost during World War II, we know – from indirect sources – of several attempts to arrange Chopin’s works for a wind/brass ensemble (Prélude in C minor) and for a symphonic orchestra (Berceuse).
Printed editions of Chopin’s music transcriptions are most often publications containing solely Chopin’s pieces, be they individually or collectively published, nonetheless the collections usually cover transcriptions for one specific instrument, voice or ensemble, are often linked by genre or arranger’s name. Transcriptions of the composer’s pieces are also contained in anthologies and collections embracing pieces by various composers intended for the same performing cast.
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