mUltimate Chopin

Text Compare Notes Sources Description

Issues : Changed phrase length

b. 63

composition: Op. 2, Variations, complete

AsI version, contextual interpretation

Final version in A, contextual interpretation

Final version in GE (→FE,EE,FESB)
..

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources; Corrections & alterations; Source & stylistic information

issues: Accompaniment changes , Main-line changes , Changed phrase length

b. 79

composition: Op. 2, Variations, complete

No repetition in AsI & GE (→FE,EE,FESB)

Repeat in A
..

It is difficult to assume that the removal of the repeat sign for b. 79-95 was not consulted with Chopin. However, the issue is generally obscure, since A is the only source in which the repeat sign was marked – it is absent both in AsI and in the orchestral material GEorch (→FEorch). Therefore, if the repeat signs are not a mistake, at some point Chopin considered expanding the Theme by 16 bars to eventually, after having sent A to the publisher, return to the initial concept. 

category imprint: Differences between sources; Corrections & alterations

issues: Chopin's hesitations , Authentic corrections of GE , Changed phrase length

b. 83

composition: Op. 28 No. 17, Prelude in A♭ major

..

This bar is absent in FCI, which could be seen as one more example of haplography – cf. the versions of FC in the Prelude in G minor no. 12, b. 78-79 or in B major no. 21, b. 54. However, according to us, this version keeping a regular, two-bar gap also between the last strokes of the bass A1 (in FCI it is not repeated anymore in b. 88) suggests that this is the initial version, expanded later by Chopin:

  • he added a stroke of the bass note in b. 88 while gradually reducing its frequency;
  • he improved the combination of the main theme of the Prelude with the ending by repeating the motif twice as a calming factor, first to a two-bar section (b. 79-80 and 81-82) and then one-bar section (b. 82 and 83).

category imprint: Differences between sources; Corrections & alterations

issues: Changed phrase length

b. 87-92

composition: Op. 63 No. 1, Mazurka in B major

AI

FE (→GE,EE)
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In AI the ending of the Mazurka is 4 bars shorter – bars 88-91 are absent, while bars 87 and 92 are present in a different form, which makes it possible to put them together directly adjacent to each other.

category imprint: Differences between sources; Corrections & alterations; Source & stylistic information

issues: Dotted or even rhythm , Changed phrase length

b. 95

composition: Op. 2, Variations, complete

Rest in #ApI & A (→GE→FE,EE,FESB)

Quaver f1 & , our alternative, variant suggestion
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In the main text we give the compliant version of all sources of the version for 1 piano. The alternative, variant proposal with a trilled f1 quaver is based on the sources of the orchestral part – Violin I in AsI and the respective voice in GEorch (→FEorch). We can only speculate what the cause of this discrepancy was; however, one of the possibilities, quite unlikely according to us, is Chopin's inadvertence. 

category imprint: Editorial revisions

issues: Changed phrase length