b. 33-34

 

 

 

 

 

 

In A Chopin wrote the last section of the Etude (from bar 33) without detailed pedal marks. The pairs of  and  marks are only in bars 52-53, apart from this there are only  marks in bars 33, 44, 46 and 54. Their sense is easy to guess:

  • bar 33 =  come prima;
  • bars 44 and 46 – underlining the hold of the bass note E in the places which had not already appeared in the Etude; lack of more detailed indications probably stems from the fact that Chopin gave a detailed pedalling in a similar situation in bars 25-28;
  • bar 54 – lack of  at the end of a piece is a frequent phenomenon in Chopin's works.

In FE the pedalling underwent a few changes, some of which may certainly be attributed to the engraver's inaccuracy (and to the lack of space) – lack of  in bar 53 and  in bar 54. However, an oversight cannot be an option in a situation where the signs were added –  in bar 34 and  in bar 45. Before we discuss these two cases, let us pay attention to the pedalling of GE1, in which apart from a routine addition of  in bar 47,  in bar 33 was omitted. According to us, it may be the key to solve the issue of pedal additions in a proofreading of FE:

  • initially, the  mark was printed in FE, probably by mistake, only in bar 34, which was repeated in GE;
  • in the last proofreading of FE1 (→EE) Chopin added a  mark there where he considered it to be necessary, hence in bar 33, leaving unchanged the accidental mark in bar 34, as it does not lead to a performance error;
  • the addition of  in bar 45 was probably a routine action of the engraver, similarly as in bar 12.

Taking into consideration the aforementioned findings and arguments, in the main text we suggest a completed version of the marks of A.

In EE and subsequent GE,s the  marks were added in all the places where they were missing after  marks.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: EE revisions, Inaccuracies in GE, GE revisions, Authentic corrections of FE, No pedal release mark, Inaccuracies in A

notation: Pedalling

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