Question (Chopin waltzes)

[dolly lo]

I have bought a book with Chopin Waltzes (ed. Urtext). But some has got two versions: one "Fassung nach der Eigenschrift", the other "Fassung nach der Fontana".

What does it mean? (I don't understand german) What is the most nearly to the one that wrote Chopin?

[frank_48]

they are both nearly Chopin, infact its all Chopin, its just with some pieces, chopin composed a waltz, published it and later changed his mind about something and altered the piece. there is the autograph version and the fontana edition.

i too, was curious about the best version of a piece, i sent a letter to the publishers once and i got this reply:

"...If we add the presentation autographs (some of them written many years after the piece had been composed), scribal copies, often with autograph glosses, and first editions with autograph corrections, we begin to sense something of the complexity of the manuscript tradition in Chopin.

Nor are things much easier when we come to the early printed sources. Most of Chopin’s music was published simultaneously in France, Germany and England. While Schlesinger in Paris characteristically worked from an autograph, the German and English publishers followed several options (autograph, scribal copy or proof sheets). This, combined with the fact that Chopin could exercise little control over the publishing process outside Paris, resulted in numerous discrepancies of text between the three first editions. Moreover the print runs were usually small, and it was common for later ‘impressions’ (tirages) to appear with the same plate numbers, but with changes to the text; in the case of the French edition, this evolution of text may, at least in some cases, have been condoned or even instigated by Chopin himself. It is hardly surprising, given the multiplicity of sources and the textual discrepancies between them, that the subsequent publication history of Chopin’s music has been fraught with problems..."

Also, from the Dover edition of the Nocturnes and Polonaises, the following:

"Improvising his performances at will, he never played a piece the same way twice.  As a result, there are numerous texts of any single Chopin work and the editions of these texts have more editorial "improvisation" than do the texts of most composers."

[giannalinda]

 use the google translate! they tell you everything!!!! and btw i live in austria...but never heard of that beofre

[dolly lo]

Thanks for the information, Frank.
Now I have to decided what version learn, ouch.