b. 153

A, literal reading

A (contextual interpretation) & GE

FE (→EE), contextual interpretation

The abbreviated notation of the beginning in this bar another occurrence of the main theme of the Polonaise and the mistakes related to it caused that the correct text of the 2nd half of the bar appears explicite only in GE:

  • In A the discussed bar is marked as a repetition of bar 49, whose notation is also incomplete, in addition, almost certainly erroneous – see the commentary to this bar;
  • in FE (→EE) Chopin's mistake in the notation of bar 49 was corrected, yet this time most probably with an erroneous, additional G note in the chords);
  • GE features an analogous version to the remaining occurrences of this bar. It is probably an editorial revision, yet Chopin's proofreading also cannot be entirely excluded.

The sources differ in the notation of the rest embracing the 4th and 5th quavers of the bar – A includes a crotchet rest (in bars 1 and 3 and 5), FE a quaver one (mistake), GE and EE two quaver rests. The notation used by Chopin is compatible with his pursuit of economy and intuitive character of the notation, in which one stroke corresponds to one note and one space between notes – to one rest. The notation does not have a direct influence on the performance, hence in the given variants we do not include the described differences and in the main text we give the notation of A.

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: EE revisions, Errors in FE, GE revisions

notation: Pitch

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