mUltimate Chopin

Text Compare Notes Sources Description

Issues : Foreign hand additions in manuscripts

b. 13

composition: Op. 28 No. 23, Prelude in F major

f1 in A (→FE→EE) & FC (probable reading)

f1-g1 in GE
..

The version of GE resulted from an erroneous interpretation of the illegible correction concerning the pitch of this note in FC – the copyist most probably first wrote g1 and then turned it into f1, as a result of which both the 2nd line and the 1st space are covered. A correction (crossing-out) is also visible in A, in which, however, it almost certainly concerned rhythm – Chopin pondered whether to write the discussed note as a minim.

The pencilled correction of the wrong clef (bass) visible in FC at the beginning of the bar – it opens the line in this manuscript – as well as a possible crossing-out of one of the notes (rather the bottom one, hence f1) on the 2nd L.H. quaver were performed by a later owner of FC, i.e. Hermann Scholtz.

category imprint: Graphic ambiguousness; Differences between sources; Corrections & alterations; Source & stylistic information

issues: Corrections in A , Errors resulting from corrections , Foreign hand additions in manuscripts , Deletions in A , Inaccuracies in FC , Alterations in CF

b. 14

composition: Op. 28 No. 14, Prelude in E♭ minor

..

No sources except FC include accidentals before the 8th quaver in the bar; FC features  's restoring e-e1, written most probably in pencil. As was the case with a number of other similar additions, those accidentals were added by H. Scholtz, who introduced them also into the 1879 Peters edition he edited. An analogous change can also be found in many other subsequent editions of the Preludes. A possible oversight of the flats restoring e-e1 would not be unusual here, since similar mistakes are among the most frequently committed by Chopin; however, the very possibility of a mistake does not mean that the mistake was actually committed, particularly since there are no musical reasons to consider the version written in the sources to be erroneous. 

category imprint: Interpretations within context

issues: Omissions to cancel alteration , Foreign hand additions in manuscripts

b. 16-18

composition: Op. 24 No. 4, Mazurka in B♭ minor

..

There are question marks under the 3rd crotchet in bars 16 and 18 in A. Written in crayon, they probably mean the engraver's doubts as to the correct reading of the manuscript. In bar 16 this could be the question of the presence of the note e1 in the L.H. chord and in bar 18 – the note e1, suggested by a  at that height and by possible merging of the note with the ending of the .

category imprint: Source & stylistic information

issues: Foreign hand additions in manuscripts

b. 18

composition: Op. 28 No. 23, Prelude in F major

..

FC did not mark the change of clef, which was corrected in GE. The pencilled clef was added later by Hermann Scholtz.

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources; Source & stylistic information

issues: GE revisions , Foreign hand additions in manuscripts , Errors of FC

b. 19

composition: Op. 30, Mazurka in D♭ major

..

In FC one can see cautionary flats to g2 and e2, added in pencil by the reviser of GE1. These marks, which we do not consider part of the text of FC, were included in GE.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: GE revisions , Foreign hand additions in manuscripts