Introduction 9
Editing Rule 44
Literature Abbreviations 45

Part 1: Techniques and Forms 47
─ Basics of Technique 49
─ Form Theory 77

Part 2: Interpretations of Chopin's Works 113

Week 153

List of disciples whose testimonies are cited in this book: 287

Appendix 1: List of annotated scores owned by Chopin's students and acquaintances, 335
─ Sterling Collection 338
─ Dubois-Omeara Collection, Vol. 353
─ Yenjejevic Collection, Vol. 375
─ Franchomme Collection, Vol. 384
─ Zaleska-Rosengart Collection, Vol. 392
─ Addendum 397
─ Shcherbatov's Collection, Volume 400
─ Orda Collection 405
─ Initials J.
Note 408 on a Chopin collection engraved with S.
─ Notes on Dubois-Omeara's Music Album 412

Appendix 2: 423 works with annotations and fingering notations from scores owned by students and acquaintances

Appendix 3: Sopin's Performance as Seen by His Contemporaries 447
─ Composer and Pianist 447
Disciple 461
─ Relative 467
─ Critics and Journalists 488

Translator's Note: Chopin's True Face as a Music Educator 503
Reference 517
Plate List 541

Browse Music Works 545
Search for people 561

A comprehensive answer to the question of how to play Chopin!

This book contains a collection of historical materials on Chopin's career as a music educator, along with detailed commentary by editor Jean-Jacques Egeldinger.
Naturally, the main sources for this book are Chopin's own writings and the testimonies of those who were taught by him.
Additionally, the appendix contains a list of Chopin's scores owned by his disciples, as well as testimonies from colleagues and acquaintances who heard the performances.
The editor has compiled the students' testimonies into two parts: Part 1 contains thoughts on music and piano playing in general, and Part 2 provides guidelines for interpreting Chopin's works.
Since the contents of Part 1 are also crucial for understanding the nature and performance techniques of Chopin's music, this book can be said to be a comprehensive answer to the question, "How to play Chopin?"

However, there is little written record of his appearance as a music educator.
Chopin, who was born with the temperament of a pure musician, found writing anything very difficult.
He may have been plagued by a fear or wariness about writing his entire life, to the point where he would say, “The pen burns my fingers.”
It is well known how difficult it was for him to write even a simple letter, especially in French, which was not his native language (he was born in Poland).
It is therefore not surprising that his letters, which are extremely restrained in their references to his compositional work, are also sparing in their mention of his teaching activities, and say nothing about what he taught.
It is therefore not at all surprising that he was unable to complete the piano textbook he had been planning for a long time, leaving only a few drafts.
That's why George Sand's words are even more accurate:
“Chopin said little about his art.
… … He did not reveal himself well even to those close to him and only expressed his true feelings through the piano.
Nevertheless, he promised to write a textbook that would cover not only the technical aspects but also the doctrine.
“Will he be able to keep his promise?”

Demonstrating an organic musical perspective in a time when contemporary techniques were prevalent

This promise was not kept.
This is exactly what editor Egeldinger has accomplished with this book.
According to Egeldinger, Chopin used music and words together in his piano lessons.
While teaching his student Georges Mathias, he used Carl Maria von Weber's Piano Sonata in A major, op.
39 (from measure 81 of the first movement) with the allusion to “an angel is passing in the sky,” or if the young Liszt in 1832 wanted to stimulate his students’ imagination by having them read the writings of Chateaubriand or the poetry of Victor Hugo, taking advantage of his newfound knowledge, Chopin was sufficient to convey images in short words.
Because he was so intensely captivated by the image he was trying to express in words.
The spontaneous and creative expressions that bring to mind here a welcoming crowd, there a house of the dead, and elsewhere a dialogue between oppressor and victim, reveal a visionary imagination and a poetic appreciation rooted in Slavic legends rather than a literary temperament.

Based on this musical temperament and pedagogical methodology, how would he have responded to the age-old conflict between technique and musicality in the first half of the 19th century? This can be easily understood by considering the piano pedagogy of Carl Czerny (1791–1857), a contemporary of Chopin.
In other words, Czerny asserted that there is a separate area of ​​technique separate from music, and that the acquisition of technique is a prerequisite for performing music.
Even now, when studying music following his example, the idea that you should learn the technique first and then add 'music' to it is widespread.
In contrast, Chopin dramatically reduced the scope of technique and gave it only the meaning of a pure means, saying, “You just have to learn how to place your hands on the keyboard.”
In this way, Chopin saw technique as having an extremely limited status within the purpose of music, which shows that he was more wary than anyone else of the fetishization of technique, a trend in contemporary music.
The author's numerous testimonies, repeatedly presented throughout his material, ultimately show that "practice is not mechanical training," and Chopin naturally demanded from his students a high degree of sensitivity and concentration rather than technique.

Moreover, Chopin thoroughly implemented the idea that “everything is connected” in his piano education.
When his contemporary Friedrich Kalkbrenner insisted that “the movement of the hand should come only from the wrist,” Chopin referred to the wrist as “the breath of the voice,” emphasizing that it was the key to vocal phrasing and the organ that organically connected the hand to the rest.
If Kalkbrenner viewed the performer's body as a mechanistic system, Chopin viewed it as an organic whole.
In addition, he views the hands and the keyboard as an organic whole, which is clearly reflected in his teaching method, which is not to reshape the hands to fit the shape of the keyboard, but to respect the innate shape of the hands and help them adapt to the keyboard.

A proper evaluation and positioning of Chopin's music in the history of music.

The testimonies of his students, acquaintances, and colleagues, which occupy a significant portion of this book, contribute to elucidating Chopin's position in the history of music by presenting his musical thought within the context of his time.
Editor Egeldinger emphasizes Chopin's attachment to 18th-century music, particularly the Baroque polyphonic tradition represented by Johann Sebastian Bach, while also pointing out that his sonic explorations as a composer and performer anticipated the Impressionist piano music pioneered by Claude Debussy from the 1890s onwards.
This perspective provides crucial insight into understanding Chopin's later works.
In other words, while Chopin in his youth responded to the challenges of his time by focusing on transferring the singing style of bel canto opera to the piano, in his mature years he double-crossed his time by combining the legacy of Bach with the sound of the Debussy era to come.
Chopin's status in musical history can be understood as the coexistence of tradition and modernity, past and future.

Through rigorous critique of the credibility of statements and extensive, thorough annotations, Egeldinger, the editor of this book, has managed to remove the mythologized aspects of Chopin's life while vividly reviving his personality and sensibility.
Another achievement of this book is that it critically reviewed the works of early biographers who had connections with Chopin's acquaintances and selected historically valuable facts.
There is good reason why this book serves as a leading reference for Chopin studies and biographies today.
But more than anything, as the translator points out, because “it focuses on Chopin when he is most Chopin-like, that is, when he is at the piano,” this book fully reveals many of his true colors to general readers who want to know about Chopin or to those who want to learn the piano.
As Heinrich Heine said, he was “the Raphael of the piano.”