On Chopin Editions as Discrete Sources: The Baudissin-Henkel-Pusch Exemplar of the Etudes, Op. 10

Abstract

While scholarly writing on printed sources of Chopin’s music typically focuses on the class to which that source belongs (say, the second state of the French first edition of the Ballade, Op. 23), this article proposes to tackle the reception history of Chopin through a discrete, individual printed source. The article proposes a brief microhistory of an individual exemplar, to situate it in a network that does not necessarily afford the composer a governing role. The source in question is a copiously annotated exemplar of the Kistner edition of the Etudes, Op. 10. Inscriptions on the title page inform us that Wolf Graf von Baudissin presented it as a gift to Heinrich Henkel in 1838. At some later date, Heinrich Henkel gave it to his daughter Sophie Henkel, who in 1931 presented it to her colleague Henri Pusch. The annotations in the edition help uncover interesting stories, narratives that reveal a largely unrecognized connection between Chopin and an important German diplomat and translator, and that help us understand better how pianists actually engaged with Chopin’s musical texts in the first century of their existence.