FC
Main text
FC - Fontana's copy
FE - French edition
FE1 - First French edition
FED - Dubois copy
FES - Stirling copy
GE - German edition
GE1 - First German edition
GE2 - Revised impression of GE1
EE - English edition
EE1 - First English edition
compare
  b. 21

Accent on d2-f2 in FC (→GE)

Accent on a1 in FE (→EE)

Long accent on d2-f2, our alternative suggestion

Both source positions of the accent make musical sense:

  • the accent on a1 separates this note as a beginning of an independent sound plane, continued in bars 23, 25 and 27;
  • the accent on d2-f2 naturally emphasises the syncopation in the melody.

As far as the sources are concerned, the difference in the position of the accent may be interpreted in a number of ways:

  1. Both versions are authentic. As the FC accent is written in Fontana's hand, Chopin must have moved it later in [A] or while proofreading FE. Therefore, the version with the accent on a1 is later.
  2. There is only one authentic version, written down in [A] and erroneously reproduced by one of the reading persons, Fontana or the engraver of FE. As a result, both source versions are to be regarded as equal, since it is impossible to say who interpreted [A] correctly without access to it.
  3. There is only one authentic version, inaccurately or erroneously reproduced by both reading persons. It could have been a long accent, written down in [A] more or less as follows:  .

According to us, the first possibility is less likely than the remaining ones; out of the three possible readings of the hypothetical [A] notation, to the main text we choose the version of the principal source, that is FC.

Compare the passage in the sources »

category imprint: Differences between sources; Editorial revisions

issues: Long accents, Inaccuracies in FE, Inaccuracies in FC

notation: Articulation, Accents, Hairpins

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