b. 59

 

 

 

 

A (→GEFEEE) has here the version that also appears in analogous bars  3, 11 & 51 (in EE without the second slur). In both extant teaching copies of the Mazurka, FED and FES, Chopin added a rhythmically fragmented variant of the melody evoking bars 9 and 57. Such a manner of enriching the melody through filling the greater rhythmic values with smaller ones was one of Chopin's favourite compositional devices, used e.g. in the following Mazurkas: in E minor Op. 41 no. 1, bars 4 and 12; in C minor Op. 56 no. 3, bars 101 and 103; in F# minor Op. 59 no. 3, bars 115-117 and 123-125, and also in Waltz in E flat Op. 18, bars 37-43 and 45-51. In the Opus 24 alone that type of shaping up the melody can be found in Mazurka in B flat minor no. 4, bars 37-41 and 45-49, and in C no. 2, bars 14 and 98, 18-19 and 102-103. Not infrequent are also situations when the idea of varying the melody appeared at the last stages of writing a given work, as evidenced by the corrections in the Mazurka in C no. 2 or changes in the Mazurka in C minor, op. 50 no. 3, bars 85 and 87. In such a situation it seems justified to consider the change introduced in FED and FES definitive.

category imprint: Differences between sources; Corrections & alterations

issues: Annotations in teaching copies, Annotations in FED, Annotations in FES, Authentic post-publication changes and variants, Main-line changes

notation: Pitch

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