Main text
Main text
A - Autograph
FE - French edition
FE1 - First French edition
FE2 - Corrected impression of FE1
FED - Dubois copy
GE - German edition
GE1 - First German edition
GE2 - Revised impression of GE1
GE3 - Revised impression of GE2
GE4 - Corrected impression of GE3
GE1a - Album German edition
EE - English edition
EE1 - First English edition
EE2 - Amended impression of EE1
EE3 - Revised impression of EE2
compare
  b. 207

In A, one can see numerous deletions in the L.H. part in this bar – it was only the initial octave that was not changed. Chopin deleted individual crotchets to eventually cross out the entire 2nd half of the bar and write the final version of the last three crotchets on an adjacent stave (below). We present a possible transcription of the main L.H. stave, taking into account a possible interpretation of the deleted crotchets: . We would like to point out that the interpretation on the basis of the available photograph is subject to a great deal of uncertainty. Above all, we assume that the deleted crotchets were dyads and not, e.g. triads. The latter cannot be excluded, yet it seems that Chopin was looking for the best position and maybe also shape of this accompanying figure. To guess the initial version on the basis of this notation, we must first determine which of the seven crotchets written there constituted it. According to us, there are two possible approaches:

  • The initial version includes all the deleted elements: . This solution, seemingly obvious and musically reasonable, is seriously flawed – it requires an explanation: why would Chopin leave such a big gap between the 2nd and the 5th crotchets when writing this version on an empty stave. After all, he could not have reserved some space for later corrections. We consider the following explanation to be likely – Chopin 'blithely' entered the first half of the bar (bass and crotchets 1 and 2), ignoring the relation to the R.H.; it was only after he had realised that the parts of both hands were out of sync that he wrote the second half correctly. When he later decided to lower the position of this figure – most probably adjusting it to the position of the accompaniment in the next bar – he used the free space to enter the first two crotchets of the final version (nos. 3 and 4) and he crossed out the 2nd half of the bar and wrote the next three crotchets under the deletion.
  • The initial version is made up of the crotchets that fill the space of the bar in the most regular manner and in compliance with the R.H.: . In this case, one has to assume that the corrections were carried out in two stages. First, crotchet 2 was replaced by crotchet 1, crotchet 3 was added and crotchet 5 was removed: . In the second stage, Chopin would delete crotchet 1 and the entire 2nd half of the bar, which he wrote on the stave below in a new version.

Compare the passage in the sources »

category imprint: Corrections & alterations; Source & stylistic information

issues: Corrections in A, Deletions in A, Accompaniment changes

notation: Pitch

Go to the music

.