Source descriptions
Both the Annotated Catalogue of Chopin's First Editions and the material derived from it in OCVE are based on accepted bibliographic conventions which have sometimes been adapted to suit the documentation in question. To gain maximum benefit from OCVE, users should consult the Annotated Catalogue, which provides detailed information about the criteria used to classify individual scores, the modes of description that have been employed, key terminology etc. The following discussion outlines the types of information provided under the 'Source description' heading for each manuscript or edition in the OCVE resource as relevant, divided into the following categories:
for manuscript sources,
for printed sources,
Title / Title of edition / Title and number of volume / Publication title
The first of these headings – Title – is used for manuscript material only; it indicates how the work in question was entitled within the source itself. This may or may not conform to the title(s) used when the work was published or by which it may be more commonly known.
'Title of edition' is employed in cases where a given work appeared within a multipartite edition (whether of a single opus or a number of pieces) bearing a distinct title, for example '24 Préludes Pour Le Piano' in the case of the constituent works within Op. 28. 'Title and number of volume' is used similarly, e.g. 'Livre 2' of the first impression of the French first edition of Op. 28 No. 15.
'Publication title' is obviously the title under which the work was published. A shortened version is usually given under this heading, in a form that does not necessarily conform to its appearance in the relevant edition. OCVE does not provide quasi-facsimile transcriptions like those in the Annotated Catalogue, which makes use of specially designed typographical characters unavailable on standard web browsers. Furthermore, the short-title formats in OCVE's source descriptions do not preserve italics, small capitals or certain other typographical features, nor are line divisions or respective positions of blocks of text identified. Comparison with relevant title-page images and with the transcriptions in the Annotated Catalogue will therefore be necessary to gain the most accurate understanding of the published titles of the Chopin first editions.
By way of example, the German first edition of the Prelude Op. 28 No. 14 is described as follows: under 'Title of edition' there appears 'Vingt-quatre Préludes pour le Piano […], Op. 28', while '[Prelude Op. 28] No 14' is indicated under 'Publication title'. In contrast, the quasi-facsimile transcription in the Annotated Catalogue appears as follows (in which | indicates a line break, while « and » denote respective positions on the line):
Vingt-quatre | PRÉLUDES | pour le Piano | dédiés à son ami | J. C. KESSLER | par | FRÉD. CHOPIN. | Oeuvre 28. « Propriété des Editeurs. » Pr. 2 Rthlr. | Leipsic, chez Breitkopf & Härtel. | Paris, chez Pleyel & Co | 6088. | Enrégistré dans l'Archive de l'Union.
Publisher
The names of publishers within the source descriptions for printed editions have been standardised where necessary and may not correspond exactly to their presentation in given scores. This is because of the variable formats adopted by some publishers, details of which can be found in the Annotated Catalogue of Chopin's First Editions. Comparison between the source description and the relevant edition is therefore essential. See Historical background for general discussion of Chopin's publishers, along with the list of publishers of Chopin's music and associated sigla.
Place of publication
The name of the city in which each edition was published appears in its English form in the source descriptions – e.g. 'London' instead of 'Londres'. Standardisation has been carried out where necessary.
Dedicatee
The names of dedicatees have not been standardised; thus, in the German first edition of Op. 23, the dedicatee is shown as 'Mr Le Baron de Stockhausen', whereas in the English first edition the dedicatee is given as 'Mons. le Baron de Stockhausen'. (The search function automatically takes these differences into account by locating matches for any string of letters entered into the box.) There may however be minor differences between the name of the dedicatee as found under Source description and in the actual score, owing to the policy on typography described under Title / Title of edition / Title and number of volume / Publication title. Most of the dedications in Chopin's first editions are located on title pages. A number of works lack any dedication. For some opuses the names of different dedicatees can be found in the respective editions brought out in France, Germany and England.
Dated / Publication date
The 'Dated' field is used for manuscripts only and indicates the date added by Chopin or a given copyist on the score itself. This has no direct relation to the date of publication. For printed editions, the publication date is provided where known. Where it has been impossible to include a copy of the first impression in the OCVE resource because no such score has been located, the date of the OCVE exemplar is given with an explanatory note regarding the first impression's unavailability.
It should be noted that innumerable problems surround the dating of Chopin's first editions; the Annotated Catalogue explores these in detail.
Source code
Each score in OCVE is given a unique source code as well as a more generalised source descriptor. These are fully described under Source codes and descriptors
Contents
The contents of each manuscript or edition/impression are described in the eponymous field, providing information about the physical make-up of the score, the pagination and content on each page etc. Where the handwritten or printed pagination begins with '1', any preceding pages without numbering are designated by lower-case roman numerals in square brackets; conversely, where the actual pagination starts with a number other than '1', bracketed arabic numerals up to the first printed page number are assigned to the unnumbered pages before it, with lower-case roman numerals again in square brackets being used for any shortfall.
Source of images / Displayed copy
Bibliographic information about the displayed OCVE source is given first by specifying the siglum of the institution or collection where the source is located (see the list of library and other sigla), and then the shelfmark if relevant. The field 'Source of images' is used uniquely for manuscript material, whereas 'Displayed copy' applies in the case of printed editions (of which multiple copies may exist).
Additional information
This section is used on an ad hoc basis. Cross-references are provided here, along with information about the volume or other source from which a given manuscript or edition has been taken. In cases where an original manuscript has been lost, an explanation is provided under this field identifying the location of any surviving photographs (e.g. see the entry for the Fontana copy of Op. 28 Nos. 1, 2, etc.).