Op. 26 No 1, Polonaise in C♯ minor

Autograph intended for base text for the first French edition, of a partly working character. The manuscript bears traces of preparation for print in the form of the engraver's additions performed in pencil (mostly numbers), determining the planned layout of the note text on pages and great staves in print.

In A there are abbreviated indications of repeated fragments. It concerns bars 1-12, written with a conventional repetition sign (in the editions the bars were written again) and bars 71-85, written with the use of subsequent numbers, corresponding to the previous section of the Polonaise. The repetition sign appears also at the end of the notation in bar 85, yet Chopin did not mark the beginning of the repeated fragment – he most probably overlooked a respective sign in bar 54.

The notation of A reveals haste – the slurs and other signs are written in an inaccurate manner, e.g., the slur in bar 40,  in bar 8 or naturals in bar 58 (b¹) or 60 (D). It includes quite a significant number of deletions, proving still ongoing works on refining the details of the piece, e.g., in bars 8, 10-11, 13-14, 16, 38, 40-42, 46, 48, 50-51, 53-54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 65, 67-68. There are also errors and inaccuracies,e.g.:

• error in the number of ledger lines in bar 5;
• no naturals returning b in bar 5, 9 and analog.;
• inconsistently marked repetition in bars 13-37 and 54-85;
• no G at the end of bar 13;
• no accidentals in bar 36;
• oversight of the natural in the grupetto in bar 39.

In A nothing indicates a possible repetition of the initial C minor section after the end of the trio-like D major section. In other words, the Polonaise seems to have the two- and not three-section structure. However, if we assume that the piece's form is the typical for the genre ABA form, the absence of relevant indications is to be considered as an inaccuracy of notation, having the most severe impact.

In many places A transmits the original versions, changed afterwards in the proofreading of FE1. The most important ones include:

• no extension of g in bar 7;
• sustained d¹ in bars 8-9;
• repeated d² in bars 20-21;
• no b¹ and a¹ in the bottom voice of the R.H. on the 5th and 6th quavers in bar 20;
• no extension of b quavers in bars 22-27;
• no slurring in bars 24-30, 37;
• the g¹ dotted minim in the top voice in the L.H. in bar 29;
• no trill ending in bar 29;
• quintuplet in bar 36;
• triad on the 3rd quaver in the L.H. in bar 43;
• ties sustaining c³ and b² in bar 45;
• fifths in bars 50 and 51;
• sustention of f² in bar 50;
• a sustained in bar 51;
• first notes in the L.H. in bars 52-53;
• equal quavers in bar 61;
• e¹ on the 2nd quaver of the bottom voice of the R.H. in bar 66.