Professor Jan Ekier talks to Anna Skulska about the National Edition of the Works of Fryderyk Chopin
Anna Skulska: How long have works been under way on the National Edition of the Works of Fryderyk Chopin?
Jan Ekier: Chopin was always the most important part of my work, most of all as a pianist and a teacher. Also, I was always interested publishing, so when in 1955 I was invited to join the Board of the Fryderyk Chopin Society in Warsaw, I immediately headed to the library and archives to see what source materials they had. I was familiar with the first volumes of the edition that were published under Paderewski's patronage and I came to the conclusion that not everything was included or adequately interpreted. We can consider 1955 as the start of my work on the National Edition.
Chopin often made corrections to his autographs, which brought about several different versions of single compositions in some instances. How did you come to decide upon the version that would serve as the base text?
Chopin's creative process rarely led to a moment of establishing a final version of a work. Rather, it worked like this: when, for example, he would receive copies for revision, rather than correct the errors, he would improve certain sections. During the printing process he would correct the setter's errors, but he would also make changes. Finally, he had a tendency to make notes in his pupils' copies with variants for particular compositions. So it's often difficult to determine the final shape of the composition – each work required its own individual editorial treatment.
This demands not only a great deal of knowledge, but also intuition...
Intuition is essential for every intellectual activity. Without it, it's impossible to come to any rational conclusion. The fact that I'm a composer myself helped me, for example, to determine if Chopin had perhaps made a mistake here and there. Moreover, thanks to my teaching experience, I know what sorts of distortions can come about when corrections are made at the music stand – it's often the case that the shape of the new notes are different. My pianistic experience was also helpful. Chopin "thought with his fingers" so when I was considering an ambiguous section, I would choose the simpler, more convenient alternative that corresponded to the natural layout of the hand.
Each autograph is authentic, as are the corrections within pupils' copies. When editing, all of this must be detailed in the commentary so a teacher or an inquisitive pupil gets an understanding of our motivation as well as an opportunity to trace the rationale for choosing one version as the basis for the work and the others as variants.
Did you think it would take so much time?
I knew from the beginning that it would be difficult and time-consuming. I remember Jerzy Waldorff's article in which he mischievously calculated that the Edition wouldn't be ready for another 400 years. Fortunately, he was wrong. We were well served by the development of technology. When Professor Józef Turczyński and Ludwik Bronarski, who prepared the Complete Works, wanted to gain access to the source texts, they had to travel to libraries in Paris, London and other cities in order to acquire copies of the autographs. We, on the other hand, can get a precise reproduction, on which even the faintest correction marks are visible, at the touch of a computer key.
More than 100 editions of Chopin's works have been released over the years. What were the most common errors?
Chopin essentially published his compositions in three locations: France, Germany and Britain. Each composition prepared for each individual printer differed from the others and contained minor errors (errare humanum est). These inconsistencies, duplicated and corrected at random, often presented a misshapen picture of certain pieces. It was necessary to retrace the entire compositional process from the beginning to remove the errors, inconsistencies and editorial liberties that had occurred over many decades. This sort of cleansing lead the way to a text that can be deemed authentic. The co-editor of the National Edition is Paweł Kamiński – we sometimes spent hours discussing a single smudge before we agreed on a final decision.
By delving so deep into the works of Chopin is it possible to retrace the evolution of his compositional technique?
Above all, it's a way to discover the richness of his creativity. The process of adding variants to his compositions certainly not complete. We're still in search of new sources. Just after the publication of the Waltzes volume, we received a photocopy of a waltz with notes marked by Chopin that were previously unknown - as a result the next print run will contain one more variant for this particular work. We recently got in touch with a family living in France who owns a copy of Grand Duo Concertant with Chopin's own notes; they allowed Paweł Kamiński to photograph it. The autograph of Variations for four hands was discovered, only it was missing the first and last pages. I reconstructed them and I haven't yet found a musician who can indicate where Chopin leaves off and Ekier begins. But if I did find those missing pages, then my version would get tossed in the bin.
While we're on the subject of reconstructions, it was the most wonderful adventure to recreate Chopin's last Mazurka in F flat, first available only in Julian Fontana's posthumous edition and then following the discovery of an illegible one-page sketch in Paris in the 1960s. Up until recently, this work contained only 40 bars, missing the ending and a central section in F sharp. The version that I reconstructed contains this central section and a repeat da capo, counting 101 bars in total.
So it could be said that the National Edition is ready, but still in progress...
Essentially, this Edition should never become a relic because we still hold on to the hope that new sources and new interpretations will continue to appear. At the moment, it's the most complete reconstruction of Chopin's works possible in the year 2010.
Interview by Anna Skulska.
Hotline to Chopin - "National Edition"
The first editions of Chopin's work that appeared in the composer's lifetime across the world varied quite a bit. After Chopin's death, efforts were made to establish "definitive" versions of particular works. Such efforts were taken up by the likes of Tellefsen, Fontana and even Brahms. Ignacy Jan Paderewski undertook the edition of the Complete Works in co-operation with his pupil Turczyński and the musicologist Bronarski. Nonetheless, their treatment of source materials was rather haphazard and inconsistent. Thus, the need remained for an edition that would render the score fit for performance, while taking into consideration all the variants for the given work. The newly published National Edition is such a compendium. It is geared most directly at practicing musicians. The general opinion is that it is easy to play from this edition: the book recommends one particular version of the score. It contains notes on fingering worked out by Chopin himself, along with notes from the book's editors that keep with the spirit of the composer's oeuvre. These fingering options are easily distinguished from one another as they are printed in different fonts. If one would like to delve into subtleties, there is a great deal of detailed commentary at hand, with a list of all sources and compositional variants for each piece, giving the National Edition undeniable academic worth.
The rulebook for the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw recommends its participants to make use of the National Edition. (Krzysztof Komarnicki)
The article comes from the Chopin Express gazette published for the 16th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition by Adam Mickiewicz Institute and Gramophone.
View the audition recitals online at chopin2010.pl/en/competitions/xvith-chopins-competition.html
Other articles of interest in Chopin Express No. 10:
"Hearing Chopin with the Fresh Ear" - Review by John Allison