ABSTRACT
Almost from the moment of their creation, Chopin’s autographs have been treated as the main source of information about the structure of his compositions and methods of their interpretation. Various source editions of Chopin’s works prepared on the basis of his manuscripts provide the best evidence in favour of the great value of the information conveyed in them. The traditional musical notation used by Chopin is that of an analytical types it divides the sound-plane into elements and arranges particular musical factors according to a conventional scale into a distinct hierarchy. There is considerable variation in the composer’s treatment of the essential factors of a composition. The melodic line, for instance, is as a rule noted with greatest care, but once it ceases to be a foreground element it is only briefly sketched. Expressed by the composer in the notation, the arrangement of elements into a hierarchy is carried out from the standpoint of texture and form.
