Main text
Main text
½A - Semi-autograph
A - Autograph of the piano part
Morch - Manuscript of the orchestra part
GE - German edition
GE1 - First German edition
GE1a - Retouched impression of GE1
GE2 - Second German edition
FE - French edition
FE1 - First French edition
FE2 - Corrected impression of FE1
FED - Dubois copy
FEJ - Jędrzejewicz copy
FES - Stirling copy
EE - English edition
EE1 - First English edition
EE2 - Revised impression of EE1
EE3 - Corrected impression of EE2
compare
  b. 21

Long accents in A

No marks in GE1 (→FEEE)

Short accents in GE2

Performance indications in this bar visible in A (slurs, long accents and a dim. indication) were not reproduced in GE1 (→FEEE):

  • accents and dim. were overlooked;
  • the slurs were adjusted to beams, so that instead of emphasising the motifs related to the hand's position, they emphasise the rhythmic structure only, which is already very legible.

The change of slurring is almost certainly arbitrary: a possible correction of five slurs would have left significant changes in print. It is also highly unlikely that Chopin would have removed accents or dim. (most probably accidental omissions of the indications are present also in the previous bar). Taking the above into account, in the main text we give the version of A.

The  indication added in FED (see the adjacent note) changes, however, the perspective from which we observe the performance indications conveyed by the editions. Not only did Chopin not question them (neither when proofreading nor when giving lessons), but he also added a hint that may be considered to be their confirmation and to be an attempt to make them more precise. In such a situation, the version of A seems to be rather virtuoso, in which the descending semiquaver triplet run co-generates the climax (accented motifs) and then eases it (diminuendo). The version of the editions, particularly when including , has its climax at the beginning of the bar, while the semiquaver run is only an ornament to the six-four chord, which is one of the most delicate Chopin ornaments, gradually developing into (together with the final ) the main melodic line (both the absence of accents and the changed slurring seem to harmonise with such an interpretation). Therefore, we may be dealing with two slightly different authentic dynamic and expressive concepts of this bar.

GE2 returned to the notation of A, yet the accents were reproduced as short.

Compare the passage in the sources »

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Long accents, Errors in GE, GE revisions

notation: Articulation, Accents, Hairpins

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