mUltimate Chopin

Op. 25 No 9, Etude in G♭ major

Text Compare Notes Sources Description

Issues : Errors in FE

b. 9-13

composition: Op. 25 No 9, Etude in G♭ major

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In GC (→GE1), FE and EE there are no naturals raising c to c in bars 9 and 13 and c1 to c1 in bar 12. These are Chopin's obvious oversights, while the signs were added in FED (in bar 9) and FEJ and FES (all).
GE1 also omitted the  raising c1 to c1 in bar 10. GE2 (→GE3) features the correct text. 

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: Annotations in teaching copies , Errors in FE , Annotations in FED , Errors in EE , Errors in GE , GE revisions , Omission of current key accidentals , Annotations in FES , Annotations in FEJ

b. 34

composition: Op. 25 No 9, Etude in G♭ major

No accidentals in sources (literal reading—C-c)

Contextual interpretation suggested by the editors (C-c)
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Lack of the naturals raising C-c to C-c is almost certainly Chopin's mistake, despite the fact that this kind of oversights of signs introducing alterations are not frequent (yet they are to be found in, e.g., the Etude in F minor, No. 2, bar 56). It could have seemed that the C-c octave did not require naturals due to the following reasons:

  • on a number of occasions, Chopin was not sure whether the last or the following it key signature is valid or not, particularly when their number was significant (cf., e.g., the Etude in G minor, No. 6, t. 7-8).
  • the chromatic progressions are characteristic for the melodic structure of a number of fragments of the Etude, e.g., in bars 1-3, 10, 23-24 (in the latter they are also in the harmonic structure). The last such fragment are bars 32-36;
  • the harmonic progression at the transition between bars 34-35 was probably supposed to refer to the progression in bars 32-33, where there is C-c. Therefore, the psychological mechanism of overlooking the naturals could have been similar to the one that was responsible for omissions of the signs of the current key – here is the signs of the current harmonic context that would have been omitted.

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: Errors in FE , Errors in EE , Errors in GE , Last key signature sign , Errors of GC