b. 575-579

Short accent in EE

Long accents in FE, probable reading of GC

Possible short accents in GC (→GE)

To determine what kind of accents Chopin intended for the ending of Scherzo is egually difficult now. The sources differ and many marks are ambiguous. Individual sources may be interepreted as follows:

  • Accents in EE - just like in the whole of Scherzo - are to a great extent short. Slightly longer marks appear only in bars 591594-595601634-638 and 640, however, there is no way of knowing if and how precise copies of the manuscript this is;
  • Accents in GC, despite slight differences in their size and shape are rather of the same kind.  It seems more reasonable to read them as short ones, as the marks to be interpreted as long are distinctly longer (e.g. in bars  596 and 601). Such is the interpretation of GE;
  • Most accents in FE are written as long (like in the whole of Scherzo), however there are also short accents in bars 592-595 and 613-616.

We reach our final decision in different places independently, once we compare marks and their correlation within one source and as compared to the other.

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: Long accents

notation: Articulation, Accents, Hairpins

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