Op. 25 No 1, Etude in A♭ major

GE1 is based on A and generally it carefully reproduces the text of the base text. The great majority of the differences can be explained with the engraver's inaccuracies or editorial revisions (e.g., adding the overlooked accidentals in bars 6 or 15). Two changes, however, exceed, according to us, these two categories – adding flats lowering A to A and a¹ to a¹ in the last group of semiquavers in bar 25 and overlooking the 3rd note in the last group in the L.H. in bar 34. Both bear all features of Chopin improvements, i.e., changes, often subtle, from one well sounding version to another, which Chopin could have however considered to be more perfect in a few aspects. However, the authenticity of these changes can be questioned:

• generally, the German editor would revise the published pieces, while the additions of accidentals constituted a significant part of the introduced corrections;
• Chopin did not introduce any of the discussed changes to the remaining sources; it is particularly puzzling in the case of FE, which was corrected by Chopin and in which he performed a few other significant corrections, e.g., addition and correction of dynamic hairpins in bar 4 and 7, separating the tenor voice in bar 17, and above all harmonic changes in bar 21. In the German edition the changes were introduced only in GE1a, hence it seems that these that are already in GE1 should have been also in FE1.

According to us, it can be explained with the help of the following scenario of events (hypothetical and not the only possible one):

• Chopin corrects FE1 and at the same time introduces a few essential changes, e.g., in the part of the L.H. in bar 21.
• Considering these changes to be important, he decides to inform the German editor about them, who had rights for all countries, except for France and England (including Poland). In the sent set of changes for GE1 Chopin added a few more to the already included in FE (mentioned above), e.g., change in the part of the R.H. in bar 21 and changes in bar 25 and 34. It is hard to assume what the form of the correction was – it could have been an additional proof copy of FE with introduced changes or only a description in the letter, illustrated with note examples (as the composer did four years later in Tarantella, Op. 43).
• At that time, proofreading of FE1 was most probably finished and Chopin did not have a possibility to introduce additional changes (if he even wanted to do this – he could have considered both versions of bars 25 and 34 to be more or less equal).
• The German editor, who certainly was almost ready with the Etudes, did not manage to introduce all changes at once, so that the chart with the first two pages of the Etude were published in the non-corrected version in GE1, yet the changes in bars 25 and 34 appearing on the 3rd page were included. All Chopin corrections were included only in GE1a.

GE1 is not free from errors, out of which the most important are the erroneous notes in bars 20 (d¹ instead of e¹) and 33 (f¹ instead of d¹ in the part of the R.H.).