{"id":407,"date":"2012-07-09T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2012-07-09T07:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.henle.de\/blog\/en\/?p=407"},"modified":"2015-06-18T15:40:20","modified_gmt":"2015-06-18T13:40:20","slug":"%e2%80%98fontana%e2%80%99s-version%e2%80%99-%e2%80%93-genuine-chopin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/2012\/07\/09\/%e2%80%98fontana%e2%80%99s-version%e2%80%99-%e2%80%93-genuine-chopin\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Fontana\u2019s version\u2019 \u2013 genuine Chopin?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>A glance at the table of contents in our Urtext edition of Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin\u2019s Waltzes (HN 131<\/a>, 230<\/a>, 9131<\/a>) may already have put a frown on the faces of many Chopin enthusiasts. Such famous pieces as the Waltzes op. posth. 69 & 70, published only after Chopin\u2019s death, are being offered in two versions: first, in a \u2018version according to the autograph\u2019, followed by a \u2018version according to Fontana\u2019. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t the version handed down in autograph good enough? What can be \u2018more\u2019 Urtext than a version based on the composer\u2019s manuscript? And who after all is Fontana? <\/em><\/p>\n

Julian Fontana (1810\u20131869) was a school friend of Chopin\u2019s from his Warsaw days. The two had gotten acquainted in secondary school, both had composition lessons with J\u00f3zef Elsner and they kept up their friendship beyond school and studenthood. With Fontana Chopin performed the two-piano version of his C-major Rondo op. posth. 73B in Warsaw in 1828. Fontana, the ardent patriot, took part in the Warsaw November uprising of 1830 and after its suppression had to flee Poland. Then began a real odyssey with stops in Paris, Hamburg, London, Bordeaux, Havana and New York. During his Paris years in 1832\/1833 and 1836\u20131841 it was natural that he should resume contact with Chopin who had also immigrated to Paris, and so their friendship deepened. Fontana advanced to being something of a private secretary\u00a0to the composer. Chopin entrusted Fontana with numerous autographs for copying; he commissioned him to negotiate with publishers and asked for assistance with mundane matters (even to apartment-hunting). Whether Chopin ever properly paid back his most important copyist, is not known. In any case, he did dedicate both his Polonaises op. 40 to him: d\u00e9di\u00e9es \u00e0 son ami Jules Fontana.<\/em><\/p>\n

It may sound cynical, but Fontana\u2019s big moment came only after his friend Chopin had died: He now sent the unpublished Chopin works to press. In close touch with the family of the deceased, he went about this in a thoroughly professional and conscientious manner. Ludwika, Chopin\u2019s sister, drew up for him a list of the unpublished compositions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(Ludwika Jedrzejewicz, Kompozycje niewydane <\/em>\u2013 \u2018Unpublished Compositions\u2019, an incipit catalogue of Chopin’s thirty-five works, autograph, Warsaw, after June 1854;\u00a0image courtesy of the Chopin Museum Collection at the Fryderyk Chopin Institute,\u00a0Warsaw.\u00a0Owner: The Fryderyk Chopin Society in Warsaw, object number: M\/301. Left of each incipit is the title, dated at the far left by Ludwika, as for example 827 <\/em>for 1827 in the case of the first entry.)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>Fontana assigned the opus numbers 66\u201373 and in 1855 published the \u0152uvres posthumes pour piano de Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin<\/em> (the Lieder op. 74 followed in 1859). Vouching unmistakeably for the authenticity of the edition was to be the title page<\/a>: publi\u00e9s sur manuscrits originaux avec autorisation de sa famille<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In the preface of this edition appearing simultaneously in Germany (from Schlesinger) and France (from Meissonnier), Fontana explains in detail how its publication came about. Chopin\u2019s family believed that it \u2018was fulfilling a sacred<\/em> duty by having a faithful<\/em> edition prepared from the composer\u2019s autograph<\/em> manuscripts [\u2026]\u2019. A short biography was to ensue, putting in perspective Fontana\u2019s friendship with Chopin and his part in publishing the many first editions. Fontana continues: \u2018His family, knowing of our having been on friendly terms, gave us the noble assignment of compiling the musical treasures he left behind, of choosing from them for publication.\u2019 Fontana once again emphasized that he had made the \u2018original manuscripts\u2019 the basis for the edition. Moreover, he had heard Chopin play the works and had even studied them himself under the composer\u2019s guidance. As a result: \u2018This last fact was of great help to us when we had to choose between two or three readings, all of them from Chopin\u2019s hand, or had to decipher an often illegible handwriting.\u2019<\/p>\n

It is just at this point that the problems we have today with Fontana\u2019s edition begin. It can be assumed that now and then in the music text Fontana deliberately intervened to some extent. So, the dilemma is: Where did Chopin stop and Fontana begin?<\/p>\n

Today we know Chopin\u2019s autographs for some of the works. They differ in part, as a matter of fact, considerably from the versions in Fontana\u2019s edition. We may now say they are proof that Fontana misrepresents the autograph-based Urtext.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there is Fontana\u2019s personal testimony, his authorization by the family and the reference to the \u2018original manuscripts\u2019. We must therefore at least take into consideration the possibility that Fontana drew on sources that at present are lost. These may possibly have been autographs transmitting the music text in the definitive version. Then the autographs that we know today would be no more than precursors.<\/p>\n

So long as we cannot prove the contrary, we are well advised to acknowledge both versions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A glance at the table of contents in our Urtext … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[278,3,322,349,320,6,463],"tags":[4,19,641],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}