Slurs in A are often inaccurate, revealing the haste with which the composer wrote them. The first evident example of this tendency is the slur beginning in bar 1 and reaching as far as the first note of bar 5. It is hard to imagine that Chopin, having first separated the four-bar introduction with a double bar line, at the same time wanted to connect it with a slur to the theme beginning more than an octave higher. The much more likely explanation is that, when writing the slur that he had every right to consider obvious, Chopin failed to notice that the slur end reached too far. We come across similar situations in bars 22-23 and 49-50. Another striking example of the discrepancy between the slur span and the phrase structure is the slur in bars 75-76. Similar issues also appear in Mazurka in G minor no. 1.
Compare the passage in the sources »
category imprint: Graphic ambiguousness; Differences between sources
issues: Inaccurate slurs in A
notation: Slurs
