Digitised Chopin

Digitised Chopin

It will be a real treat for enthusiasts of the works of the master from Żelazowa Wola. His rich heritage is being digitised by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute. In three years, a total of almost 40 thousand Chopin-related objects will be made available online.

‘Such projects are much needed, as they provide universal access to cultural heritage. For years now, we have been doing our best to digitise and popularise Chopin’s works. Thanks to EU subsidies, our activities are of the best quality and on an unprecedented scale,’ said Marcin Konik, Ph.D., the Library Manager at the Institute.

Obviously, what shall prevail in the digital heritage of Chopin will be his music. The project covers digital recordings of all of Chopin’s compositions, as well as the archives of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition and the “Chopin and His Europe” Festival. ‘An innovation awaited by fans of Chopin’s works is the fact that we will provide them with access to transcriptions of the scores in a number of versions, based on specific sources, which are mainly first printings. Our advanced search engine will make it possible to browse through our collections not only by the titles, but also melodies and other elements of music,’ explained Marcin Konik, Ph.D.

Digitised heritage
- 39.5 thousand digitised documents
- 38.5 thousand documents available online
- 1.5 million hits per year (as planned)

Moreover, there will be an option to remotely browse the manuscripts of Chopin’s compositions and correspondence, as well as their first printings, including those with the composer’s notes. Apart from that, scientific monographs, magazines and a number of other archival materials will be available online. The digital collection is to be open to the public at the end of 2020. As cautiously estimated by the Institute, it will be browsed by at least 1.5 million people from all over the world annually.

Project: Open-access Chopin’s heritage
Project cost: approx. PLN 8.1 million, including approx. PLN 5.1 million from the European Regional Development Fund, Digital Poland Programme