The phrasing of this fragment provides, according to us, relevant indications concerning the interpretation of Chopin slurs. The original slurring – transferred by EE, yet initially written also in GC and corrected in FE (one can see a clear trace of a shorter slur in bar 7) – consisted of two slurs: one included two triplets in bar 6 and the second began from the B
crotchet in bar 7. Chopin changed the slurring both in GC and FE, yet while the slur in FE is conclusive, in GC it is not certain whether the added section of the slur in bar 7 was supposed to connect it to the previous one, according to Chopin, or to be only an earlier start of a new slur (GE1 interpreted the slurs literally as non-connected). In analogous bars 50-51, we find both correct versions of the slurring, already without the traces of performing changes, yet there one slur appears in GC (and EE) and two in FE.
Therefore, it seems – and this conclusion is confirmed by numerous similar situations in other pieces – that Chopin actually treated both slurrings equally. A relevant rule can be formulated as follows: breaking the slur at the bar line (and sometimes also at the beginning of further main beats of the bar) had a conventional meaning and did not mean a break neither in the legato articulation, nor in the phrasing.
category imprint: Differences between sources; Corrections & alterations
issues: Authentic corrections of FE, Authentic corrections in GC
notation: Slurs
Back to note