Polonaises, Series B - Piano

All of the Polonaises included in this volume were written during Chopin's childhood and youthful years, through to the earliest of the Polonaises prepared personally for printing by the composer (op. 22 and 26). This strict division into two groups has no correlation with other Chopin categories: Mazurkas or Waltzes not published by Chopin came into being during his entire period of creative activity at the same time as those he made for publication. Both groups of Polonaises complement each other in a particular way, together giving an understandable cross-section of the whole of Chopins creativity from Polonaise B WN1, being his first surviving compositional attempt for the Polonaise-Fantasy op.61, which belongs to the group of masterpieces crowning his last creative period. The collective publication of his Polonaises till now, which present them in the order of finding and publication gives, from this perspective, a totally chaotic impression. [from source commentary].

Includes Polonaises: in B flat major, G minor, A flat major, G sharp minor, D minor, F minor, B flat minor, G flat major.

The National Edition of the Works of Fryderyk Chopin

Published by PWM

Exclusively Distributed by Hal Leonard Corporation

Co-Editors: Jan Ekier and Pawel Kaminski

The objective of the National Edition is to present Chopin's complete output in its authentic form, based on the entire body of available sources. Sources were analyzed with up-to-date scientific and musicological methodology.

The National Edition was based on sources originated from the composer, mainly autographs, copies of autographs and first editions with the composer's corrections, and pupils' copies with Chopin's annotations. In cases when original sources were lacking, the closest possible materials were used. Collecting the source materials was a laborious task which took years of effort.

The characteristics of sources, the links and discrepancies between them as well as the reasons for particular editorial decisions are discussed in the Source Commentary in each volume.

The Performance Commentary appended to each volume includes: the realization of ornaments, comments on pedal markings (the original markings sometimes are inadequate, due to the difference in sound between pianos used in Chopin's times and modern pianos), suggestions as to the “harmonic legato” (a performance technique often used by Chopin and now forgotten).