In the entire four-bar section, bars 277-280, Chopin provided with slurs only the last two quaver figures of the accompaniment in A. The slurring of the corresponding fragment of the exposition looks exactly the same – bars 129-132, hence it seems that the composer had a precise vision, where the slurs are necessary. It obliges us to perform a more detailed analysis of three slurs appearing in GE (→FE→EE), which could have been added by Chopin:
- the range of the slurs overlaps with the range of quaver beams; it is the most noticeable characteristic feature of the slurs placed by the engraver of GE1, also in the places where Chopin had written different slurs (see the characterization of GE1);
- there is no reason why the slurs had not been added already earlier – the 2nd half of bar 277, left without a slur, has the same structure as both halves of bar 288, provided with slurs;
- Chopin would provide accompaniments of a similar structure with longer slurs – cf. e.g. bar 142 as well as the first Nocturnes in Op. 32 and 62 (both in B major).
The above arguments do not settle the authenticity of the slurs added in GE1, but they reduce – quite clearly, according to us – the chance that it was Chopin that was their author. Therefore, we do not include these slurs in the main text.
Compare the passage in the sources »
category imprint: Differences between sources
issues: GE revisions
notation: Slurs
