FE
Main text
A - Autograph
FE - French edition
FE1 - First French edition
FE2 - Corrected impression of FE1
FEJ - Jędrzejewicz copy
FES - Stirling copy
GE - German edition
GE1 - First German edition
GE2 - Revised impression of GE1
EE - English edition
EE1 - First English edition
EE2 - Corrected impression of EE1
compare
  b. 80

b1 together with d2 in A & EE

b1 before d2 in GE # FE

As in bar 78 and 82, moving the last bottom voice quaver between the 2nd and the 3rd notes of the triplet in the top voice was an arbitrary decision by the engraver of GE. In the discussed bar this version of notation, contrary to A, was also used in FE. However, according to us, it is highly unlikely that Chopin could have introduced this change while proofreading FE1 or earlier, into [FC]:

  • The combination of a triplet in the top voice and two notes in the bottom one appears in the Fantasy 9 times, out of which 6 times the last note in the bottom voice is written down as a quaver (bar 78, 80 and 82 as well as 165, 167 and 169), and 3 times as a semiquaver (bar 245, 247, 249). Only three times – in bar 80, 167 and 169 – FE did not synchronise this note with the last triplet quaver, which indicates that the nature of these changes is rather random.
  • The sound difference between both versions of these figures is insignificant and does not justify the introduction of such irregular complications.
  • Looking at the dense FE notation, one could suggest the following mechanism behind the origin of the varying versions of the last bottom voice quaver – the engraver believed that it is to be placed between the 2nd and the 3rd triplet notes, yet he departed from this formally strict notation wherever a natural to the last triplet note made such arrangement impossible (placing this quaver before a  would actually situate it under the 2nd triplet note, which would be a patent mistake).

EE did not repeat the FE version, most probably adjusting the notation to the similar figures in bar 78 and 82, more natural, pianistically speaking (the revision of EE1 was carried out by an excellent pianist, Ignaz Moscheles).

Compare the passage in the sources »

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: EE revisions, GE revisions, FE revisions

notation: Rhythm

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