ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis could never have been written without the help and support of various individuals. I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Steven Jan, for his invaluable encouragement, input and guidance in the writing of this dissertation. My gratitude is also expressed to John Rink and Anatoly Leiken, both renowned exponents on the music of Chopin, for their advice as to the availability and importance of various source materials relating to Chopin's piano sonatas.

I would also like to thank all those who were involved in the translation of the numerous source materials used in this dissertation: to Babara Gadja and Josef Alechowki, for unravelling the extremely complicated Polish articles (some of which had already been translated from the original Russian); to Katrien Matschke and Wendy Law for effecting the translation of the lengthy German articles; and to Naomi and Wendy Law for the translation of various French quotations.

Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Oshry, for their continual support of my musical career.