As part of the Routledge Music Bibliographies series, this volume is a re-working of Smialek’s first edition of 1999 by him but with the considerable additional contribution of Maja Trochimczyk, leading to a fully revised work.
As with other guides in this series, the relatively slim volume belies a wealth of highly organised material which is listed according to key aspects of the composer’s life. In Chopin’s case, the amount written about him has been particularly prodigious – the first article was apparently written in 1818 when he was only eight years old! – and so the book covers not only more general previous research and a full list of his output (manuscripts, editions and transcriptions) but also a section on his correspondence and a final part covering reception and performance studies. Two indexes cover names associated with the volume and a subject index of all the composition genres (e.g. ballades, nocturnes).
As with other volumes in the series, this book will be an essential guide for any music collection where scholars are studying Chopin or related topics (for example, nineteenth-century music or the piano repertoire). Routledge Music Bibliographies are not cheap, especially considering the quality of the binding, but this kind of volume is still proof (if needed) of the value of guides of this kind being available in print rather than purely online (an e-book version is also available).
