Op. 22, Andante spianato

FE1 was based on a manuscript (lost – not a single manuscript of op. 22 has been preserved) and was at least twice proofread by Chopin. It results from the interconnections between the first three editions – their comparison proves that both GE1 and EE1 were based precisely on FE1, which, thus, had to be based on a manuscript. At the time when the Polonaise was published, Chopin would not get help of copyists while preparing Stichvorlagen for print; therefore, the manuscript was almost certainly an autograph – [A]. In turn, the fact that Chopin proofread FE1 at least twice is proven by the places in which the version preserved in EE was changed in FE1, which means that the correction was introduced already after the copy serving as Stichvorlage for EE had been sent to London*. The most significant and unequivocal change of this nature was the addition of a grace note before the chord in b. 48.

Other situations in which, on the basis of the differing text of EE1, one can assume Chopinesque corrections in the last stage of preparing FE1 are the following:

• addition of fingering in b. 53,
• removal of dolce in b. 67,
• addition of ties of c¹ in b. 73-74 and 85-86.

A characteristic inaccuracy of FE1 is the layout of both hands to each other inconsistent with the rhythmic values, e.g. in b. 17, 41 and 43 as well as in b. 15 and 39.

FE1 also contains mistakes and inaccuracies of other nature, e.g. inaccurate notation of accidentals (most probably repeated after [A]) in b. 35 or 52.
 

^* A similar analysis performed in the Polonaise leads to the conclusion that the proofreading of FE1 could have consisted of as many as three stages, since it is also GE1 that contains versions that were probably changed in the final version of FE1. See the characterisation of FE1 in the Polonaise.