(Op. 4), Sonata in C minor, Mvt I

Autograph fair copy that Chopin offered to publishers, first in Leipzig* and then in Vienna.** Although A is generally elaborate, with a significant number of performance markings, we can also find here mistakes, oversights and other inaccuracies (above all, in terms of accidentals and slurs). Some markings, especially dynamic ones, were probably added to the already finished text (as part of a kind of self-revision), which is indicated by the visible – sometimes striking – differences in the size and form of certain signs, as well as by the noticeable lack of correlation between them (e.g. in bar 102, 155 or 179).
The following are particularly noteworthy:

• the way of writing long accents, not yet fully formed, often placed  a f t e r  the accented note – cf. bars 82-84;
• the use of an octave sign, more often than usual, sometimes even over notes on bottom ledger lines, which is caused by the lack of space between great staves – cf., e.g. two bottom great staves on p. 5;
• liberal approach to accidentals, which often seem to be valid in all octaves (e.g. in bar 103). As an example, we could take the notation of octaves, in which both accidentals are rather an exception (e.g. bars 121-124 or 147-158);
• liberal approach to slurs, whose range or presence are often determined not by the articulation or structure of a phrase or motif, but by graphic issues – Chopin simply omitted places in which writing a slur would be difficult or impossible, cf., e.g. bars 17-20, 101, 179, 182-183.

Chopin wrote an opus number on the title page – Oeuvre 3 ['opus 3' in French]. After having written the Sonata, most probably in 1827-1828, Chopin hoped for it to be published as the next piece after the Variations, Op. 2. However, that never happened; when 12 years later, in 1841, the Vienna-based Haslinger company decided to publish the work, Chopin strongly opposed it.*** Eventually, the Sonata was published after the composer's death, provided with the opus number four, which Chopin did not use. We put it in brackets to distinguish it from the remaining opuses, the publication of which Chopin never questioned.

Along the right hand side of the title page, one can see a note by the addressee of the dedication, Józef Elsner – 'Mit Vergnugen [sic!] nehme ich die Dedication an ['I gladly accept the dedication' in German] J. Elsner'.

A includes annotations performed by a foreign hand: numerous engraving marks, in pencil and in red crayon, while in this movement also a number of pencil accidentals of uncertain origin and purpose – see bars 12-14. One may also suspect that some of the ink notes, indistinguishable at first glance from the main script, do not originate from Chopin, e.g. in mov. IV the small cross above the staff in bar 180.

^* On 9 September 1828, Chopin wrote to Tytus Woyciechowski: 'I think that this Trio will share the fate of my Sonata [in C minor] and Variations [Op. 2]. They are already in Leipzig, the former, as you know, dedicated to Elsner […].'

^** We learn that Chopin asked Haslinger to publish the Sonata and that the publisher rejected this proposal from Chopin's letter to his family, written from Vienna on 1 December 1830: '[Haslinger] received me with utmost politeness, yet he printed neither the Sonata nor the other Variations [WN 6].'

^*** See the characterisation of GE1.