FE1
Main text
½A - Semi-autograph
A - Autograph of the piano part
Morch - Manuscript of the orchestra part
GE - German edition
GE1 - First German edition
GE1a - Retouched impression of GE1
GE2 - Second German edition
FE - French edition
FE1 - First French edition
FE2 - Corrected impression of FE1
FED - Dubois copy
FEJ - Jędrzejewicz copy
FES - Stirling copy
EE - English edition
EE1 - First English edition
EE2 - Revised impression of EE1
EE3 - Corrected impression of EE2
compare
  b. 278-279

No slurs in A

3 slurs in GE (→FEEE)

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 (→FEEE), 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

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Original in: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris