Slur corrections in bars 58-59 and 62-63, the traces of which can be seen in GE1, are an exception in the entire Opus 24. Apart from those two changes, GE1 does not show any other differences in relation to A that could be ascribed to Chopin. That fact makes us consider whether such changes could possibly be introduced by a reviewer. Some arguments against that possibility, i.e. for the authenticity of the corrections, are:
- compliance of the removed slurs with the base text (A) and with the routine solutions of GE1; in other words, the reviewer of GE1 did not have any reason to change the correctly printed slurs;
- introduction of similar changes by Chopin, both at the stage of writing A (in bars 43-44 of the Mazurka in B flat no. 4) and in the proofing of FE (bars 18-19 of the Mazurka in G no. 1) – in all those situations the beginning of the slur that ran from the 1st note of the bar was moved left in order to embrace the accented crotchet at the end of the preceding bar.
Ultimately, the slurs of A in the form preceding the correction made GE1 were preserved in FE (→EE1→EE2), while the corrected slurs of GE1 were repeated in GE2 (→GE3) and EE3.
Compare the passage in the sources »
category imprint: Differences between sources; Corrections & alterations
issues: EE revisions, Authentic corrections of GE
notation: Slurs