#000603
Complete Preludes, Nocturnes and Waltzes (Piano)
Frédéric Chopin
A single-volume piano score gathering three of the pillars of Chopin's output: all 26 preludes, 21 nocturnes, and 19 waltzes. Together they span the composer's range from the terse, aphoristic miniatures of the Op. 28 preludes — each a complete world in a page or two — through the singing, rubato-laden melancholy of the nocturnes to the elegant, ballroom-adjacent poise of the waltzes. This edition, in the long-running Schirmer's Library of Musical Classics, was edited by the pianist Rafael Joseffy, and updated printings add fresh urtext readings of several pieces. It's a practical, widely used performing edition rather than a scholarly critical one, the kind of durable yellow-covered volume that has sat on countless piano desks. For any intermediate-to-advanced pianist, it collects an enormous amount of essential Chopin between two covers.
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The composer
Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849), Polish-French composer and pianist, is the central figure of Romantic piano music. He wrote almost exclusively for the instrument, and his preludes, nocturnes, and waltzes are among the most played and recorded works in the repertoire — intimate, harmonically adventurous, and idiomatic to the piano in a way few composers have matched.
The book
This is a performing score in the Schirmer's Library of Musical Classics, edited by the Hungarian-American virtuoso Rafael Joseffy (1852–1915), collecting the complete preludes (26), nocturnes (21), and waltzes (19). Updated Hal Leonard printings incorporate urtext revisions for several pieces.
How to read it
As a practical anthology, not a critical edition. Joseffy's fingerings and interpretive markings reflect an older performance tradition, which some teachers prize and others set against modern urtext editions (Henle, the Polish National Edition). For everyday study and playing, its comprehensiveness and low cost are the draw.
For more context
Urtext editions and recordings by canonical Chopin interpreters deepen the picture.
Sources - Complete Preludes, Nocturnes and Waltzes — Wise Music Classical - Schirmer edition listing — Amazon
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Frédéric Chopin
- Publisher
- G. Schirmer / Hal Leonard
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Music
- Location
- Colorado