PROFILBARU.COM

National Edition of the Works of Fryderyk Chopin
	Cover of the first volume (Ballades, 2nd edition)
Edited by	Jan Ekier, Paweł Kamiński
Country	Poland
Language	Polish, English
Publisher	PWM Edition
Published	1967–2010
Media type	Urtext
No. of books	37
OCLC	668111267
Website	www.chopin-nationaledition.com/en/

The National Edition of the Works of Fryderyk Chopin (Polish: Wydanie Narodowe Dzieł Fryderyka Chopina), also known as the Chopin National Edition and the Polish National Edition, is an urtext edition of the complete works by Frédéric Chopin, aiming to present his output in its authentic form.^[1]

Started by Jan Ekier in 1959, the entirety of Chopin's known works were published in 37 volumes from 1967 to 2010, accompanied by source and performance commentaries. The Chopin National Edition is considered the authoritative edition of Chopin's works, and is recommended to contestants of the International Chopin Piano Competition.

History

We owe Chopin a debt... His music allowed us to survive the worst moments, and in the periods of hope extols Polish culture all over the world. We owe it to the author to publish his work in the form he intended. This is the goal of the National Edition: to pay off a Nation's debt to Chopin.

Jan Ekier^[2]

In 1959, Jan Ekier started the project of a new critical edition of Chopin's works, as he came to the conclusion that the prevailing Paderewski edition presented a "false image of Chopin's music in many aspects".^[3] The first volume of Ballades was published in 1967 by PWM Edition, featuring a minimalist design with white covers.^[4] A total of nine volumes were published up to 1991, with a publication rhythm that correlated to each edition of the quinquennial International Chopin Piano Competition.^[5]

After the Revolutions of 1989, the edition was re-evaluated from a market perspective. While the first editions were typeset manually and accompanied by Polish commentary only, the new editions were typeset using SCORE, with bilingual (Polish and English) annotations.^[5]

In 1998, Ekier established the Foundation for the National Edition of the Works of Fryderyk Chopin, for fundraising, research, publication and promotion of the National Edition.^[2] In 2004, he received a special award from the Minister of Culture of Poland, "in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the preservation and popularization of the legacy of Fryderyk Chopin, in particular for the monumental National Edition of his works, restoring to European culture the art of the great Polish composer in a form closest to its historical original."^[6]

The edition was completed in 2010, in time for the bicentenary of Chopin's birth.^[5]

Volumes

As an urtext, the Chopin National Edition aims to produce a musical text that adheres to the original notation and the composer's intentions. All extant sources were analyzed and verified for authenticity, mainly autographs, first editions with Chopin's corrections and pupils' copies with Chopin's annotations. Necessary editorial decisions are documented in each volume's source commentary. Additionally, a separate performance commentary documents cases where Chopin's notation may be misunderstood by contemporary pianists, such as realizations of ornaments and pedaling.^[7]^[2]

The Chopin National Edition consists of 36 volumes in two series, for works published during Chopin's lifetime (Series A), and for works published posthumously (Series B). A 37th volume (titled Supplement) consists of compositions partly by Chopin, for instance his contribution to Hexameron.

Series A: Works published during Chopin's lifetime
No.	Cat.	Contents	PC/SC
1	A I	Ballades	[1]
2	A II	Études	[2]
3	A III	Impromptus	[3]
4	A IV	Mazurkas (A)	[4]
5	A V	Nocturnes	[5]
6	A VI	Polonaises (A)	[6]
7	A VII	Preludes	[7]
8	A VIII	Rondos	[8]
9	A IX	Scherzos	[9]
10	A X	Sonatas	[10]
11	A XI	Waltzes (A)	[11]
12	A XII	Various Works (A)	[12]
13	A XIIIa	Piano Concerto No. 1 (for one piano)	[13]
14	A XIIIb	Piano Concerto No. 2 (for one piano)	[14]
15	A XIVa	Concert works for piano and orchestra (for one piano)	[15]
16	A XIVb	Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante (for one piano)	[16]
17	A XVa	Variations on "Là ci darem la mano" (score)	[17]
18	A XVb	Piano Concerto No. 1 (historical score)	[18]
19	A XVc	Fantasy on Polish Airs (score)	[19]
20	A XVd	Rondo à la Krakowiak (score)	[20]
21	A XVe	Piano Concerto No. 2 (historical score)	[21]
22	A XVf	Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante (score)	[22]
23	A XVI	Works for Piano and Cello	[23]
24	A XVII	Piano Trio	[24]

Series B: Works published posthumously
No.	Cat.	Contents	PC/SC
25	B I	Mazurkas (B)	[25]
26	B II	Polonaises (B)	[26]
27	B III	Waltzes (B)	[27]
28	B IV	Various Works (B)	[28]
29	B V	Various Compositions	[29]
30	B VIa	Piano Concerto No. 1 (for two pianos)	[30]
31	B VIb	Piano Concerto No. 2 (for two pianos)	[31]
32	B VII	Concert works for piano and orchestra (for two pianos)	[32]
33	B VIIIa	Piano Concerto No. 1 (concert score)	[33]
34	B VIIIb	Piano Concerto No. 2 (concert score)	[34]
35	B IX	Rondo in C for two pianos, Variations in D for four hands	[35]
36	B X	Songs	[36]

Catalogue (WN)

The edition provides a new numbering scheme ("WN") for works published after Chopin's death, similar to existing catalogues by Maurice J. E. Brown (B) and Krystyna Kobylańska (KK). Some works have opus numbers assigned after Chopin's death by Julian Fontana, who grouped a number of unpublished piano pieces into eight opus numbers (Op. 66–73).^[8]

WN catalogue
WN	Title	Op. (Fontana)	Completion date	First edition
1	Polonaise in B-flat major		1817	1910
2	Polonaise in G minor		1817	1947
3	Polonaise in A-flat major		1821	1908
4	Polonaise in G-sharp minor		1824	1864
5	Variations in D major for 4 hands		1824–1826	1965
6	Variations in E major		1824	1851
7	Mazurka in B-flat major		1826	1851
8	Mazurka in G major		1826	1851
9	Funeral march in C minor	72 No. 2	1826	1855
10	Polonaise in B-flat minor		1826	1881
11	Polonaise in D minor	71 No. 1	1825–1827	1855
12	Polonaise in F minor	71 No. 3	1826–1828 (-29?)	1855
13	Ecossaise in G major Ecossaise in D-flat major Ecossaise in D major	72 No. 2 72 No. 3 72 No. 1	1826 (1830?)	1855
14	Mazurka in A minor	68 No. 2	1827	1855
(op. 4)	Sonata in C minor		1827/28	1851
15	Rondo in C major for 2 pianos	73	1828	1855
16	Warianty ("Variants") (Souvenir de Paganini)		1829	1881
17	Polonaise in B-flat major	71 No. 2	1829	1855
17a	Mazurka in G major		1829
18	Waltz in E major		1829	1861
19	Waltz in B minor	69 No. 2	1829	1852
20	Waltz in D-flat major	70 No. 3	1829	1855
21	"Życzenie"	74 No. 1	about 1829	1857
22	"Gdzie lubi"	74 No. 5	about 1829	1859
23	Nocturne in E minor	72 No. 1	1827(?)–1830	1855
24	Mazurka in C major	68 No. 1	1830	1855
25	Mazurka in F major	68 No. 3	1830	1855
26	Mazurka in G major	67 No. 1	1830 (1835?)	1855
27	Contredans		1830 (1827?)	1948
28	Waltz in A-flat major		1829–1830	1902
29	Waltz in E minor		1830 (?)	1868
30	"Poseł"	74 No. 7	1830	1859
31	"Czary"		1830 (?)	1951
32	"Hulanka"	74 No. 4	1830	1859
33	"Precz z moich oczu"	74 No. 6	1830	1853
34	"Wojak"	74 No. 10	1830	1857
35	Polonaise in G-flat major		1830	1869-70 (about 1859?)
36	[Allegretto]		1829–1831	1990
37	Lento con gran espressione (Nocturne in C-sharp minor)		1830	1875
38	"Piosnka litewska"	74 No. 16	1830 (1831?)	1859
39	"Smutna rzeka"	74 No. 3	1831	1859
40	"Narzeczony"	74 No. 15	1831	1859
41	Mazurka in B-flat major		1832	1953
42	Waltz in G-flat major	70 No. 1	1832	1855
43	Cantabile		1834	1955
44	Presto con leggierezza (Prelude in A-flat major)		1834	1919
45	Mazurka in A-flat major		1834	1930
46	Impromptu in C-sharp minor (Fantaisie-Impromptu)	66	about 1834	1855
47	Waltz in A-flat major	69 No. 1	1835	1855
48	Mazurka in C major	67 No. 3	1835	1855
49	"Leci liście z drzewa"	74 No. 17	1836	1873
50	"Pierścień"	74 No. 14	1836	1859
51	"Moja pieszczotka"	74 No. 12	1837	1859
52	"Wiosna"	74 No. 2	1838	1859
52a	"Wiosna" for piano		1838	1990
53	Sostenuto (Waltz in E-flat major)		1840	1955
54	"Śliczny chłopiec"	74 No. 8	1841	1859
55	Waltz F minor	70 No. 2	1841	1852
56	Moderato <Kartka z albumu> (Leaf from the album)		1843	1912
57	"Nie ma, czego trzeba"	74 No. 13	1845	1859
58	"Dwojaki koniec"	74 No. 11	1845	1859
59	Gallop Marquis		1846-47	1990
60	Mazurka in A minor	67 No. 4	1846-47	1855
61	"Z gór, gdzie dźwigali" <"Melodia"> (Melody)	74 No. 9	1847	1859
62	Nocturne in C minor		1847–1848	1938
63	Waltz in A minor		1847–1849	1955
64	Mazurka in G minor	67 No. 2	1848–1849	1855
65	Mazurka in F minor	68 No. 4	1849	1855 (partly) 1965 (full)

Reception

Reception of the National Edition has been positive. Paul Badura-Skoda called it "the best available Chopin edition made with extreme care and precision". Jim Samson wrote that "by far the best of the modern editions is Jan Ekier's Polish National. Ekier does work with well thought-through editorial principles and his text comes closer than any other to a faithful reproduction of a single ('best') source." According to Frans Brüggen, the edition "seems to be very trustworthy. Having compared all the different sources available, Professor Ekier was able to make good editorial decisions."^[9]

References

^ Ekier 1974, p. 11.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Foundation for the National Edition of the Works of Fryderyk Chopin". Fryderyk Chopin Institute. Archived from the original on 24 November 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
^ Kamiński 2016, p. 91.
^ Kamiński 2016, p. 79.
^ ^a ^b ^c Kamiński 2016, p. 80.
^ "Jan Ekier". Culture.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 14 August 2021.
^ Kamiński 2016, p. 81.
^ Numbering and Chronology of the Works Published After Chopin's Death (PDF).
^ "Chopin National Edition" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-08-14. Retrieved 14 August 2021.

Sources

Ekier, Jan (1974). Introduction to the Polish National Edition of the Works of Fryderyk Chopin. Part 1. Editorial Issues (PDF). Translated by Comber, John. Warsaw: Fryderyk Chopin Institute.
Kamiński, Paweł (2016). "The History and Current State of the National Edition of the Works of Fryderyk Chopin". In Bockmaier, Claus (ed.). Facetten II: Kleine Studien – Edition und Interpretation bei Chopin. Munich: Allitera Verlag. pp. 79–92. ISBN 978-3869068459.