mUltimate Chopin

Op. 26 No 1, Polonaise in C♯ minor

Text Compare Notes Sources Description

Issues : Long accents

b. 13-79

composition: Op. 26 No 1, Polonaise in C♯ minor

..

In the editions, almost all signs of accents were represented as short accents – the engraver of FE (→GE1) correctly placed the only long accent in bar 63, yet in EE and GE2 (→GE3→GE4→GE5) it was changed to a short one. According to us, the notation of the majority of the accents of A clearly indicates their interpretation as long accents. Apart from the aforementioned, in the manuscript there is a specific for Chopin, rarely present sign of an inverted long accent – see bar 47.

category imprint: Differences between sources; Source & stylistic information

issues: Long accents , EE revisions , GE revisions , FE revisions

b. 15

composition: Op. 26 No 1, Polonaise in C♯ minor

Long accent in A (contextual interpretation)

Short accent in A (literal reading→#Wf→GE,EE)
..

Although in A the sign of the accent is clearly shorter than in the adjacent bars, it is most probably to be interpreted as a long accent – same as in analogous bars 13 and 17.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Long accents

b. 20

composition: Op. 26 No 1, Polonaise in C♯ minor

A long accent in A

A short accent in FE (→GE,EE)
..

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Long accents , Inaccuracies in FE

b. 76

composition: Op. 26 No 1, Polonaise in C♯ minor

Long accent in A

Short accent in FE (→GE,EE)
..

FE (→GE,EE) rendered a clearly long accent in A as short, a patent imprecision.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Long accents , FE revisions

b. 79

composition: Op. 26 No 1, Polonaise in C♯ minor

Inverted long accent in A & GE2

 in FE (→GE1,EE)

Short accent in GE3 (→GE4→GE5)

Accent written into FEJ
..

In FE (→GE1,EE), instead of the sign of a reversed accent, there are  hairpins between b1 and a1. The inaccuracy, clearly distorting the sense of the sign, was revised in GE2 and GE3 (→GE4→GE5) on the basis of comparison with analogous bar 47. In FEJ Chopin added an accent in pencil under the top stave, which, according to us, can be considered to be a temporary correction of the misleading notation of FE. 

category imprint: Graphic ambiguousness; Differences between sources

issues: Long accents , Annotations in teaching copies , Inaccuracies in FE , GE revisions , Annotations in FEJ