Język Polski
English
Playing with the Chopin Sources
John Rink
Abstract
Today, thanks largely to the Internet and the possibility of uploading digitalised collections, access to manuscripts and first editions of Chopin’s works is greater than ever before. The benefits for performance and research are inestimable. At the same time, however, the unlimited, universal access to sources even for those not trained to interpret them could lead to erroneous, ungrounded readings of Chopin’s music on the part of pianists, inexperienced Chopin scholars and music lovers.
In this article, the author addresses some of the issues linked to primary source material, before formulating a number of rules and procedures appropriate to the study of that material. His aim is to arrive at a better informed understanding of ‘Chopin’s intentions’ (although those intentions will remain problematic) and also to free the creative potential latent in the sources. Systemising the types of sources, indicating the basic issues that should be tackled by an editor of source material and illustrating them with examples from specific compositions, he draws conclusions enabling the creation of a catalogue of general principles for the study of any of Chopin’s manuscripts or first editions.
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