Annotated Catalogue of Chopin’s First Editions by Christophe Grabowski and John Rink (review)

This annotated catalogue of first editions is unique in the field of music publishing, and is especially appropriate for the particular case that Chopin’s oeuvre represents. Having settled down in Paris, Chopin had his works, from Opus 6 onwards, released simultaneously in France, in the German states, and in England, though without paying the same personal attention to the progress of each respective publication. Chopin’s musical heritage thus came to us in three first editions. The problem is well known, and clearly summarized by the authors (pp. xxi–xxiii). They state modestly (p. ix) that it has taken ten years of research to arrive at this authoritative result, but in reality this Annotated Catalogue is the culmination of about twenty years of preparation and the gathering of materials internationally (from sixty institutions and five private collections across eleven countries), punctuated by Christophe Grabowski’s doctoral thesis in 1992, and a succession of major studies produced by the authors.

The book lists and describes, with a meticulousness that will be discussed below: (a) the first editions that appeared during Chopin’s lifetime, (b) those that were released between 1850 and 1878, and (c) the successive reprints of these editions until their disappearance from the market. The 4,830 or so copies that have been inventoried represent approximately 1,552 distinct impressions—‘most of which could plausibly be described as “Chopin first editions” in one sense. The meaning of “first” needs to be qualified, however: as the “Historical overview” explains, multiple impressions of many scores were successively brought out, thus producing a vast quantity of “first editions” that vary in content and relative significance. Numerous difficulties arise in identifying and classifying this material, requiring the systematic application of well-defined criteria so that the distinctive features and status of each impression can be determined and assessed’ (p. ix).

The Annotated Catalogue opens with two introductions: a historical survey, ‘Chopin’s first editions: historical overview’ (pp. xxi–1xi), and an ‘Introduction to the Annotated Catalogue’ (pp. lxiii–lxxxiv). The historical overview, erudite yet lucid, recounts the legal context of music publishing in the countries where Chopin released his works (pp. xxi–xxiii); lays out the general characteristics of the first editions (pp. xxiv–xxxv; physical properties, printing methods, aspects of the title pages, covers, and musical modifications—or lack of them—occurring over the course of successive impressions); and presents a near-exhaustive study of Chopin’s French, German/Austrian, English, and Polish editors, and the dating of their respective editions (pp. xxxvi–lxi; Italian editors are mentioned briefly on pp. lx–lxi).

The introduction proper sets out the principles that guided the classification, the description, and the dating, of thousands of scores that had, until now, been stuck in an impasse created by previous, ill-informed approaches. It begins with an explanation (pp. lxiii–lxv) of the classificatory criteria that have been implemented and, in particular, defines what will constitute cognate impressions for the purposes of the volume: ‘After prolonged reflection, we have therefore decided to classify together those scores with the following common characteristics: (1) identical text on the title page; (2) identical physical contents; (3) identical means of production; (4) identical music text and extra-musical elements such as caption titles, sub-captions, footlines, etc.’ (p. lxiv).

The authors subsequently detail the means they use in the catalogue to describe the scores as closely as possible, and to attribute them to one impression or another (pp. lxv–lxxv): the meticulous transcription of the title page and of all the other textual elements of a score (described as ‘quasi-facsimile transcriptions’: p. lxvii n. 14), the contents, the criteria for dating, and the identification of the textual and musical modifications that make it possible to distinguish between different impressions. For this last point, most importantly, the authors have come up with a very simple solution, by indicating...