mUltimate Chopin

Text Compare Notes Sources Description

Issues : Errors in EE

b. 1-2

composition: Op. 28 No. 8, Prelude in F♯ minor

Long accents in A (→FC), contextual interpretation

4 short accents in FE

No marks in GE 

3 vertical accents in EE
..

The long accents written in A (→FC) were not reproduced correctly in any of the editions. Both the shorter marks in FE and their omission in GE could have been related to a very dense and not always rational vertical text layout. The change of the accents' font in EE is a revision, typical of that edition, while the omission of the third mark – an oversight.
In the main text we also include – unlike FE – the accents in b. 2, marked in the manuscripts as a repetition of b. 1. This issue is generally ambiguous, e.g. tempo/character indications are certainly not to be repeated, but slurs and pedalling marks continued in the next bars should definitely be repeated. In the case of accents, both possibilities are actually equivalent in this context – the marks are given here as a pattern and should be applied also in the next bars, hence the number of explicitly given accents (4 or 8) is insignificant (cf., e.g. the accents at the beginning of the Prelude No. 6 in B Minor or the Etude in C Major, Op. 10 No. 1). 

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: Long accents , EE revisions , Inaccuracies in FE , Errors in EE , Errors in GE

b. 1

composition: Op. 28 No. 16, Prelude in B♭ minor

Staccato in A (→FE)

No mark in FC (→GE) & EE
..

The missing staccato dot is an oversight of the copyist and the engraver of EE.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Errors in EE , Errors of FC

b. 1-6

composition: Op. 28 No. 18, Prelude in F minor

4 slurs in A (→FC) & EE2

Slurs in b. 1, 2, 6 in FE

Slurs in b. 1, 2, 5 in GE

Slur in b. 6 in EE1
..

None of the editions based on manuscripts reproduced all 4 slurs over the pairs of chords in bars 1-2 and 5-6. EE1 overlooked yet 2 out of 3 slurs in FE. The complete set of slurs in EE2 results from a compilation of the slur of EE1 with the slurs reproduced from GE1.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: EE revisions , Errors in FE , Errors in EE , Errors in GE

b. 2

composition: Op. 29, Impromptu in A♭ major

..

The mordent's sign was omitted in EE.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Errors in EE

b. 2-4

composition: Op. 35, Sonata in B♭ minor, Mvt II

Wedges in GC & FE

Dots in GE

No signs in EE
..

Staccato dots at the beginning of bars 2 and 4 consist the most glaring example of German engraver's misrepresenting wedges in GC – the difference between wedges there and dots in neighbouring bars 1, 3 & 5-7 is very distinct. GE did not use any wedges in the whole Sonata. The lack of signs in EE is most probably an oversight.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Inaccuracies in GE , Errors in EE , Wedges