GE1Ab - First German edtion of Waltz in A♭ major
| Publisher: | Breitkopf & Härtel |
| Date: | XI 1847 [VIII 1849] |
| Plate number: | 7717 |
| Title: | Trois Valses || Valse. | No. 3. |
| Dedication: | None |
The first, separate German edition of the Waltz in A
major, based on a proof copy of FE without later corrections introduced by Chopin. It is unclear why at the time of preparing GE1Ab a new typesetting was performed instead of using the one of GE1op – it is probably the technical issues that were decisive, e.g., some initial assumptions concerning the volume of the copy. Moreover, a late publication date, resulting from information from the music press, is also surprising – August 1849. It is perhaps the date of introducing this version of GE to the market, however, the edition had been certainly prepared earlier, more or less at the same time that GE1op. It is indicated by:
- close publication numbers of both versions of GE1 – 7717 and 7721 – suggesting that GE1Ab was published or planned to be published earlier. It is even more likely considering the fact that it is the form – of a separate publication of each of the Waltzes – that the base text was given (proof copy of FE). The publisher may, perhaps already at the time of typesetting GE1Ab (and its counterparts in the remaining two Waltzes), have decided to release to the market also the entire Op. 64 in one book and he commenced parallel works on GE1op. Eventually, in November 1847 it was GE1op that certainly appeared; in turn, the actual moment of introducing GE1Ab to the market is unknown (not later than August 1849);
- parallelly performed identical corrections in print in both versions, e.g., in bars 49 and 60 – if one of the editions had not been ready (proofread) before commencing works on the second, not including these corrections in the later publication would have been rather obscure.
Both versions of GE1 differ in a number of details, e.g.:
- mistake of GE1Ab on the 3rd beat of bar 13,
- no pedalling in bar 19 in GE1Ab,
- no additional slur in the R.H. in bars 90-91 in GE1Ab,
- no pedalling in GE1op in bar 142,
raising d2 to d2, in GE1op placed erroneously in bar 143 instead of bar 144,- mistake of GE1Ab on the 2nd beat of bar 146.
| Original in: | Jagiellonian Library |
| Shelf-mark: | Muz. 2404 III |