mUltimate Chopin

Text Compare Notes Sources Description

Issues : Centrally placed marks

b. 34-35

composition: Op. 10 No 5, Etude in G♭ major

No marking in A & EE2

 in FE (→GE)

EE3 (→EE4)

Our alternative suggestion
..

It seems to be highly unlikely that Chopin, at the time of adding  in a proofreading of FE (→GE), wanted to indicate the scope of validity of the forte dynamics from the place it was put by the engraver. According to us, there are two possible explanations:

  • the written with flourish  mark (cf. the Etude in A minor, No. 2, bar 29) reached from the semiquaver to the minim and was supposed to concern the beginning of bar 35; the version with the sign in bar 35 was introduced in EE3 (→EE4);
  • the sign, written more or less in the middle of the chordal motif, was supposed to embrace the entire motif with its range (cf. the Etude in C major, No. 1, bar 45). In the contemporary notation, it corresponds to the sign under the first out of three chords.

In the main text we suggest a solution stemming from the first possibility, as being closer to the source notation.

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: EE revisions , Errors in EE , Centrally placed marks

b. 35

composition: Op. 10 No 1, Etude in C major

No indication in CLI

 in FE (→GE,EE)

Our suggestion
..

In FE (→GE,EE) the  indication seems to be valid only from the semiquavers in the R.H. According to us, it is however highly unlikely for this indication not to include also the long resounding octave in the L.H. Therefore, we consider it as the notation's inaccuracy and in the main text we propose a relevant minor correction of the sign's placement. See also bar 45. 

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: Centrally placed marks

b. 43

composition: Op. 10 No 10, Etude in A♭ major

 in A

FE (→GE,EE)
..

In the main text we give  there, where Chopin wrote it in A, as emphasising the appearance of a figuration based on a new, dissonating chord seems to be justified. However, the interpretation adopted in the editions does not have to be erroneous, as Chopin would often use the notation in which such placed dynamic mark is binding from the beginning of the bar, cf., e.g., the Etude in C major, No. 1 bar 45.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Inaccuracies in FE , Centrally placed marks

b. 43

composition: Op. 10 No 3, Etude in E major

..

The indication con forza begins in A (→FE→GE,EE) almost under the 3rd semiquaver in the bar. However, there is no doubt that it has to be obeyed from the second one.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Centrally placed marks

b. 45

composition: Op. 10 No 1, Etude in C major

No marking in CLI

 in FE (→GE,EE)

Our suggestion
..

The  indication falls on the 2nd beat of the bar in the sources. It seems highly unlikely that Chopin wanted to indicate exactly this place as the moment of reaching the forte dynamics, therefore, in the main text we propose to put the sign at the beginning of the bar. Chopin probably used here an earlier notation rule, according to which the signs were not placed at the beginning of the area covered by them, but somewhere in the middle. This type of notation can sometimes be encountered in his works. Cf. e.g. the notation of A in Etude in G, Op. 10 No. 5, bar 83.

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: Centrally placed marks