A - Autograph
| Date: | IX 1832-II 1833 |
| Title: | Nro 3 |
| Dedication: | None |
Autograph fair copy intended as Stichvorlage for the first French edition. At the moment of its creation, it could be a part of a joint autograph, including four subsequent Etudes (until number 6). As one can guess from the correspondence between the editors of the Etudes, Schlesinger in Paris and Kistner in Leipzig, on the 2nd February, 1833, the Parisian editor considered the first six Etudes to be delivered by Chopin. Therefore, the composer must have prepared a manuscript base text sufficiently in advance. On the other hand, in spite of visible corrections, A is not a working manuscript and was most probably written with an edition in mind, which, in May 1832, still was not planned at all, as it results from the letter of Chopin's would-be Parisian editor, Aristide Farrenc, to Kistner from 4th May 1832. Moreover, still at the end of August, Chopin wrote the Etude in a working form (AI), hence the fair score – A – must have been created later. It is on this basis that the possible time framework of performing the first group of autographs fair copies was established, including the Etudes Nos. 3-6.
In A one can see numerous engraver marks, determining the division into pages and great staves of FE1.
A includes a relatively high number of corrections, in which the deleted elements are carefully erased, e.g., in bars 8, 14, 15, 32, 47-50, 61. There are also simplified corrections, in which the old version is transformed into a new one, e.g., correction of the slur in bar 21 or change of smorz. to calando in bar 60. Despite these changes, some details remained in a non-final shape, which Chopin then changed in a proofreading of FE, e.g., chord in the R.H. of the span of an octave at the beginning of bar 44, c-c1 octave as the last semiquaver in the L.H. in bar 53, a1 crotchet in the 2nd half in bar 67.
A includes numerous and varied interpretation indications – word indications, dynamic, articulation marks, slurs. The fingering is written only in bars 38-40, similarly as pedalling, which appears only in bars 20 and 42-45. Chopin, to a large extent, completed and revised the performance indications, while correcting FE. Numerous and visible "hooks" at the bottom of the note stems or naturals reveal haste at the time of writing (cf. the characteristics of the autograph of the Mazurka in C major, Op. 24 No. 2).
A is not free from errors, e.g., in bar 44 the mistakenly written a2-d
3 notes were not deleted, in spite of the addition of the correct a1-d2.
| Original in: | The Fryderyk Chopin Museum, Warsaw |
| Shelf-mark: | M/192 |
