AI - Working autograph
| Date: | 6 VIII 1832 |
| Title: | [Etude] |
| Dedication: | None |
AI differs in numerous details from the later version of FE (→GE,EE), even if we do not take into consideration the purely performance indications, quite numerous, yet often written randomly or inaccurately. One can mention here lack of extensions of some of the figuration's notes, e.g., in bars 3 and 7 and 8, different arrangement of the chords in bars 3 and 53, 5, 9, 11 and 61, 19-20, 45, 68-69, as well as lack of the semiquavers in the L.H. in bar 50 and the octave in the L.H. at the beginning of bars 51 and 81.
The working, hasty and careless nature of the notation is revealed by erroneous, inaccurately written notes, more numerous than in fair scores (e.g., the last note in the L.H. in bar 42, the bottom note of the chord ending bar 65). It is a result of the fact that the manuscript was not supposed to pass the piece's text to someone else; it was dedicated only to the composer himself.
AI includes very few indications concerning the fingering (cf. the note to bar 1) and only one pedalling mark (in bar 51). In turn, there are numerous dynamic indications, staccato marks, accents and slurs. They offer quite a clear image of the piece's performance, which in the final version was only made more precise. In a few places, the indications of AI are even more detailed than in FE, e.g., slurs in bars 4-5 and 7.
One can wonder whether AI could have been the base text for FE. Numerous performance indications and traces of corrections from the versions written in AI visible in a few places in FE seem to support this hypothesis. However, the arguments for the Etude's fair score – [A], which served as the basis for the publication – having been performed on the basis of AI are, according to us, stronger:
- no engraver marks;
- corrections only in the form of deletions or "remake,", often not easy to interpret clearly; lack of erasures, being a visible proof of paying attention to legibility in these autographs which served as base texts for print;
- the aforementioned numerous carelessly written notes whose interpretation would be very burdensome for the engraver.
| Original in: | Muzeum Fryderyka Chopina, Warszawa |
| Shelf-mark: | M/3249 |
