Chopin would perfect the details of the accompaniment from the beginning to the end of the piece formation process. Not including very common in his works shifts of bass notes an octave lower or – which was less frequent – higher, in this Waltz, one can find a number of subtle changes in the layout and density of chords, number of touches, moments alterations appear, etc. In the discussed bars, Chopin started from a simple, as it seems, progression of chords: , which he then refined trice in the subsequent notations of As, AI and A. The fact that the changes were introduced already at the time of writing As is confirmed by – in spite of no crossings-out – the layout of signs on the bottom staff as well as by the differences in the ink intensity. In each of the discussed bars, the chords written with notes are placed exactly under the first notes of the part of the R.H., hence, originally, they were to be played at the beginning of the bar. In bar 67, Chopin immediately changed his intention, adding a d crotchet before this chord and only afterwards, a third touch at the end of the bar. In turn, in bar 66, both repetitions of the chord written as the first one are already marked, hence the initial, sustained crotchet was most probably added last.
category imprint: Differences between sources; Corrections & alterations
issues: Accompaniment changes
notation: Pitch
Back to note