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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