ABSTRACT
Never before have musicians and musicologists had such easy access to the manuscripts and first editions of Chopin’s works. For decades it was necessary to order microfilms, photocopies or photographs from the libraries or other institutions that held these sources, and quite apart from the resultant expense and delay it was often difficult to discern the finest details because of the poor quality of reproduction. Some scholars would respectively answer ‘Yes’ and ‘No’, although my own views are rather different. The author nevertheless accept that the increasing availability of the Chopin sources presents unprecedented challenges, not least because they are often difficult to understand both in themselves and within Chopin’s output as a whole, as well as in the context of early nineteenth-century compositional and publication practices more generally.
