This Annotated Catalogue presents the most ambitious and comprehensive research ever carried out on the first editions of Chopin's music. It begins with an in-depth introduction to these unique sources and the publishing practices that gave rise to them. A detailed description then follows of each Chopin first edition and the later impressions produced by the original publishers or their successors. The Annotated Catalogue facilitates identification of the Chopin scores held in libraries and private collections around the world by attempting to reconstruct the creative history of each edition. It features entries on 1,552 distinct impressions – of which some 4,830 copies are individually described – along with explanatory essays, appendices and facsimiles of over 200 title pages which illustrate their respective catalogue entries. Musicians and musicologists alike will gain an unprecedented understanding of the creative history of each Chopin edition and the music within it.
