mUltimate Chopin

Op. 25 No 4, Etude in A minor

Text Compare Notes Sources Description
Select: 
Category
All
Graphic ambiguousness
Interpretations within context
Differences between sources
Editorial revisions
Corrections & alterations
Source & stylistic information
Notation
All
Pitch
Rhythm
Slurs
Articulation, Accents, Hairpins
Verbal indications
Pedalling
Fingering
Ornaments
Shorthand & other
Importance
All
Important
Main
Undo Clear

b. 1

composition: Op. 25 No 4, Etude in A minor

Title in A

Title & dedication in FC

Title & dedication in GE1

Title & dedication in GE2 (→GE3)

Title & dedication in FE

Title & dedication in EE1 & EE3

Title in EE2

Our suggestion
..

In the main text we give the title and dedication in accordance with the title page of the entire opus in FC and FE.
See the Etude in A major, No. 1.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: EE revisions , Dedications , GE revisions

b. 1

composition: Op. 25 No 4, Etude in A minor

in A (→FE)

in FC (→GE) & EE
..

The values of the metronome tempo, both 120 in A and 160 in FC, were written with Chopin's hand, it was most probably also the case in the manuscript base text to EE. Therefore, in the main text we give 160, present in two authentic sources.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Errors of A , Metronome tempos

b. 1

composition: Op. 25 No 4, Etude in A minor

in A (→FC), EE & GE2 (→GE3)

in FE & GE1
..

The use of  time signature is not surprising only in GE1, as FE does not use the  indication in the Etudes – contrary to the manuscripts – at all, neither in Op. 10 nor in the Etude in F minor, Dbop. 36 No. 1 (cf. also the Impromptu in A major, Op. 29). In any case, the correctness and authenticity of the  time signature does not raise any doubts thanks to A (→FC). The correct time signature was returned in GE2 (→GE3).

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Changes of metre , Inaccuracies in GE , Inaccuracies in FE , GE revisions , 4/4 or 2/2

b. 1

composition: Op. 25 No 4, Etude in A minor

 in A (→FE) & GE2 (→GE3)

 in #CF

 in GE1 & EE
..

According to us, placing  in A only at the beginning of bar 1 is an example of Chopin's using a manner of putting the indications inside, and not at the beginning of, the area of their validity, which is not used at all today. It is also possible that Chopin feared the suggestion that the indication refers only to the L.H., yet this risk also seems to be negligible in our times. In FC Fontana put the sign slightly earlier, so that in GE1 it was printed at the very beginning of the piece. The interpretation was reviewed in GE2 (→GE3).

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: GE revisions , Inaccuracies in FC , Centrally placed marks

b. 2-4

composition: Op. 25 No 4, Etude in A minor

No signs in A (→FE)

  in FC (→GE1)

  in EE

  in GE2 (→GE3)
..

The pair of   hairpins must have been added by Chopin in FC and base text to EE. Nothing indicates that Chopin could have wanted to resign from these indications – their absence in A (→FE) is almost certainly a result of haste and insufficient attention at the time of parallelly introducing corrections and additions in three Stichvorlage manuscripts. Similarly in bars 6-8.
Shortening the  sign in GE2 (→GE3) is most probably an editorial revision or a mistake of the engraver. 

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Scope of dynamic hairpins , GE revisions , Authentic corrections of FC