mUltimate Chopin

Op. 38, Ballade in F major

Text Compare Notes Sources Description

Issues : Omissions to cancel alteration

b. 93-95

composition: Op. 38, Ballade in F major

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In the main text, we add a cautionary  before e1 in bars 93 and 95. The former of those flats was also added in GE.

category imprint: Editorial revisions

issues: Omissions to cancel alteration

b. 109

composition: Op. 38, Ballade in F major

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We add a cautionary  before the first g2 in the main text.

category imprint: Editorial revisions

issues: Omissions to cancel alteration

b. 133

composition: Op. 38, Ballade in F major

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Chopin did not write a  restoring g1 in the penultimate chord. This was noticed only in GE2 (→GE3) which also added a  before g2. We include these additions in the main text (cf. the authentic naturals added next to both notes of an octave in bar 135).

category imprint: Editorial revisions

issues: Omissions to cancel alteration

b. 135

composition: Op. 38, Ballade in F major

f2-f3 in A, FE1 & GC (contextual interpretation) and FE2 (→FE3) & GE

f2-f3 in EE
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In A, the third and fourth chords in the R.H. contain patent mistakes: there is no accidental before the third one, which results in a f2 simultaneously with f3, whereas before the fourth one Chopin wrote a  before the lowest note and a  lowering e3 to e3, which also results in a f2 simultaneously with f3. The sharp before the 4th chord, unnecessary in the current configuration, confirms the assumption resulting from a comparison with analogous bar 110 that Chopin meant f2-f3 in the third chord and f2-f3 in the fourth one. This version, without errors, is present in FE2 (→FE3), corrected by Chopin. In all sources based directly on A, the following inauthentic corrections were performed:

  • in GC, the copyist added a necessary  before the topmost note of the 4th chord (f3) while omitting the  before e3. In GE, the text was revised to the correct version of FE2;
  • in FE1, the  before the lowest note of the 4th chord was omitted, which, however, did not influence the correctness of the notation, which still contained two mistakes;
  • in EE, a  was added before the top note of the 3rd chord, which resulted in a harmonically reasonable version, yet certainly inauthentic in the face of the Chopinesque proofreading of FE2.  

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources; Editorial revisions

issues: EE revisions , Omissions to cancel alteration , GE revisions , Errors of A , Authentic corrections of FE , Errors repeated in FE

b. 176

composition: Op. 38, Ballade in F major

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Chopin omitted a  lowering b2 to b2 at the beginning of bar, and a  restoring b1 in the 2nd half of bar. An oversight of both the alteration and its canceling may seem improbable but happened to Chopin a few times, e.g. in Etude in F minor, op. 25 no. 2, bar 56.

category imprint: Editorial revisions

issues: EE revisions , Omissions to cancel alteration , GE revisions , Omission of current key accidentals , Errors of A , Errors repeated in FE