mUltimate Chopin

Op. 64 No 2, Waltz in C♯ minor

Text Compare Notes Sources Description

Issues : Chopin's hesitations

b. 93-96

composition: Op. 64 No 2, Waltz in C♯ minor

As, first version

As, 2nd version

As, 3rd version & AI, contextual interpretation

As, 4th version

A (→FE→GE,EE)
..

Four versions of these bars written in As illustrate the evolution of the concept of the ending of this section. The catalyst for change was, as it seems, the harmonic course – from a simple replacement of the final tonic chord with its minor version in the first edition, through a three-bar modulation with the use of a characteristic leading chord (it can be interpreted as, e.g. an altered f-a-c-e subdominant) in the second one, to the suspension of the harmonic course on the diminished seventh chord in the last two (see also the note on bars 92-93).

As far as the melodic line is concerned, the major transformation took place in the last two bars. Chopin started from repeating the phrase from bars 77-80, with a change only in the last bar, having a nature of a connecting episode with the beginning of the refrain. In the next versions, the changes appear each time earlier; one can also see that two elements, which then contributed to the final version – leading the phrase to g1, and not g2, and the descending diminished seventh f2-g1 (written initially as e2-g1) – were already in the second version, yet Chopin then transitionally resigned from the seventh. It is also worth noting that both versions of the melody used in the finished editions of the piece (AI and the published version) are already included in As. 

Due to the lack of indication of the conclusive version, we assume the earliest version to be the text of As.
In the second of the given variants, we take into account two slurs in the L.H., which, due to major differences between particular editions of the accompanying part, are to be applied only in this version. 

category imprint: Differences between sources; Corrections & alterations

issues: Chopin's hesitations , Accompaniment changes , Main-line changes