In the case of the Scherzo in B
minor, Op. 31, published at the same time as the Mazurkas, both Chopin's autograph and Fontana's copy based thereon survived. It allows us to say that Fontana generally did not differentiate between long and short accents; consequently, he would generally reproduce Chopinesque long accents in his copy as short accents, e.g. in bars 42-43, 118 and 124, 495-515. It was also FE that often did not respect the differences in the length of accents, which makes us suggest (where appropriate) long accents also in the places in which both sources include short marks, as is the case with the discussed bars.
The absence of an accent in bar 63 must be a mistake by GE1, corrected in GE2 by adding a long accent.
category imprint: Graphic ambiguousness; Differences between sources
issues: Long accents, Errors in GE, GE revisions
notation: Articulation, Accents, Hairpins
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