Jerremy writes:

>I've noticed that in some of his orignal fingerings on his compositions.
>In most editions, the editor will omit some of Chopin's fingerings and add
>his own fingering and pedal marks (although Chopin himself sometimes didn't
>write his own pedal markings) I've looked at some of his original fingering
>and the fingering seemed kind of odd.

Liszt said something to the effect that every finger must be able to go
anywhere, each finger must be prepared to "do it duty".  He once played the
Emperor having cut the forth finger of his right hand, rendering it useless
(at least I read that).  If you look at the score, that's quite a feat.

Teachers usually teach standard fingering so students can play music
fingered in a standard way by the editors.  Piano teachers don't get paid
by how well the student can improvise but how well they play Bach.  Chopin
used and taught what I might call meta-fingering

Bill Pirkle