mUltimate Chopin

Op. 25 No 4, Etude in A minor

Text Compare Notes Sources Description

Issues : GE revisions

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 (→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

b. 7-15

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

..

At the beginning of bars 7 and 15 we add cautionary naturals before G and g. The signs before the 1st quaver in both bars were introduced in GE and EE3, before the second – only in GE2 (→GE3).

category imprint: Differences between sources; Editorial revisions

issues: EE revisions , GE revisions