Main text
Main text
CLI - Copy by Linowski
Ap - Presentation autograph
FE - French edition
FEcor - Chopin's FE proof
FE1 - First French edition
FE2 - Corrected impression of FE1
FED - Dubois copy
FEJ - Jędrzejewicz copy
FES - Stirling copy
GE - German edition
GE1 - First German edition
GE1a - Corrected impression of GE1
GE2 - Second German edition
GE3 - Third German edition
GE4 - Fourth German edition
GE5 - Fifth German edition
EE - English edition
EE2 - Second impression of [EE1]
EE3 - Corrected impression of EE2
EE4 - Revised impression of EE3
compare
  b. 37

Octave in CLI

Single note in Ap

Single note in FE (→GE,EE

Octave possibly intended in FE

Below the comparison of the versions of the 1st quaver in the L.H. in bar 2 and analogous (– a single A note, 8 – the A1-A octave):

bar CLI Ap [FE0] FE
2 8 A 8 8
6 8 A 8 8
10 8 A 8 8
14 A A A 8
37 8 A A A
41 8 A 8 8

The following observations can be made:

  • one of the sources including the non-final version of the Etude (Ap) has a single in all places;
  • although the version with the octave does not appear in all bars in any of the sources, in each of them it is included at least once – CLI or FE
  • in one of the places Chopin changed a single note for octave (FEcor in bar 14);
  • in the version of the piece accepted for printing a single note appears only once.

According to us, it leads to the conclusion that the only place with a single note (bar 37) may have been preserved in the version accepted for printing as a result of the composer's distraction during proofreading. At the same time, there is no doubt that the octave would have been provided with a staccato dot, same as the remaining quavers in the L.H.

On the other hand, the version with a single note may have been intended. The comparison of the part of the L.H. in bars 36-44 with bars 9-17 shows also other small differences (in bar 44), whereas the final result is a consistent in the entire final section of the Etude division of single bass notes, used in bars 36-40, from the octaves present in bars 41-49. It allows to consider both versions of this bar as justified from the point of view of the sources.

Compare the passage in the sources »

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: Errors in FE

notation: Pitch

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