An Investigation of Pencil Annotations Made Probably by Chopin in Copies of First Editions Held in Nicolaus Copernicus University Library in Toruń

Paweł Kamiński

Abstract

In the numerous extant scores of Chopin’s works that were once used by his students during piano lessons with the composer, there are many pencil annotations made by Chopin himself. To date, however, we know about the collected scores belonging to only a few of the more than one hundred pupils of Chopin. we may assume, therefore, that other documents of this sort still await discovery. The present article discusses six copies of Chopin first editions from the University Library in Toruń containing pencil annotations similar to those found in copies known to have been used by the composer for teaching his students. The annotations have been subjected to meticulous analysis of both the form of the handwriting (numbers, letters, notes, etc.) and the content. of key significance were comparisons with Chopin’s annotations in scores of unquestioned authenticity, primarily from the collections of jane Stirling, Camille dubois and Ludwika jędrzejewicz.

The research brought to light a document of primary importance: a copy of Kistner’s Leipzig first edition of the Nocturnes, op. 9. In the first two nocturnes, more than one hundred annotations of various kinds were identified: ornamental variants (a few of them previously unknown), octave reinforcements of bass notes, corrections of misprints, slurs and other articulation marks, marks of dynamics, pedalling and fingering, and slanted crosses. Most of them display characteristic features of Chopin’s handwriting and a high level of consistency with the substance of annotations found in other scores known to have been used for teaching. It is the first known instance of Chopin annotations in a german edition; one is also struck by the number and variety of the entries.

Authentic annotations are also to be found in two other sets of nocturnes: in the first editions by Schlesinger of op. 15 and by Breitkopf & härtel of op. 27. The Nocturne in F major, op. 15 No. 1 contains fingerings notated in a way that is characteristic of Chopin, the correction of a printing error and a number of minor performance markings. In the Nocturne in d flat major, op. 27 No. 2, the entries cover fingerings and changes to pitch and rhythm: corrections of errors or earlier versions, as well as a single variant. It appears highly probable that the annotations are genuine.

The most interesting annotation in the copy of the first german edition of the Mazurkas, op. 41 is a variant inscribed beneath the music that adds another five bars to the ending of the Mazurka in A flat major, No. 3. This variant, published by jan Kleczyński in his edition of The Mazurkas in 1882, has not been known before in its autograph form.

The identity of the person who owned these annotated copies in Chopin’s time remains unknown.