mUltimate Chopin

Op. 38, Ballade in F major

Text Compare Notes Sources Description

Issues : Inaccuracies in GE

b. 33-34

composition: Op. 38, Ballade in F major

  in A

GC

FE

EE

GE
..

The sources differ in the range of the   hairpins, which in the majority of the cases does not however significantly influence their musical sense. In the main text we give the marks based on A, as nothing indicates that Chopin changed anything in the remaining sources. From the graphical point of view, it is the text of GE that is most distant from the version of A, in which there is an accumulation of effects of inaccuracies of the copyist and engraver. However, according to us, the major risk of distorting Chopin's idea stems from the notation of EE in which the dynamic climax seems to fall on the 3rd quaver of the bar.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Inaccuracies in GE , Inaccuracies in GC

b. 38-41

composition: Op. 38, Ballade in F major

Slurs in A (→EE)

GC

FE

GE
..

Only EE recreated the notation of the slurs of A correctly. The version of FE, despite shortening the slurs, does not change the general idea of Chopin's phrasing. However, both the inaccurate slurs of GC and their arbitrary interpretation in GE distort the phrasing determined by Chopin.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Inaccuracies in GE , Inaccuracies in FE , Inaccuracies in GC

b. 66

composition: Op. 38, Ballade in F major

 in A (→GC)

in FE

in EE & GE
..

In EE and GE the  ends with the 2nd beat of bar 66. Perhaps the editors' revision was caused by the will to obtain an analogy with bar 64, in which cresc. actually embraces only the 2nd half of the bar.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: EE revisions , Inaccuracies in GE , Inaccuracies in FE , Scope of dynamic hairpins

b. 67

composition: Op. 38, Ballade in F major

 before c1 in A (→GC,EE)

 on b in FE

 on a in GE
..

Similarly to bars 65-66, the differences in placing the  sign result from inaccurate reproducing of the Stichvorlage, in this bar by the engravers of FE and GE.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Inaccuracies in GE , Inaccuracies in FE

b. 92-93

composition: Op. 38, Ballade in F major

 in A (→EE)

 in GC i FE

in EE

 in GE
..

The shortening of the  sign in FE is rather certainly the result of the text's layout – bar 93 starts a new line. However, it is difficult to establish the cause for the shortening of the sign in GC. The copyist could e.g. have mistaken these bars with bars 94-95 where A has a shorter sign. We regard the inaccuracies – in relation to the Stichvorlage – of the hairpins in GE and EE as the effect of a routine adjusting of the signs to the rhythmical structures. We give the A notation in the main text.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Inaccuracies in GE , Inaccuracies in FE , Scope of dynamic hairpins , EE inaccuracies , Inaccuracies in GC