Main text
Main text
A - Autograph
GE - German edition
GE1 - First German edition
GE2 - Later impression of GE1
GET - Toruń copy
FE - French edition
FE1 - First French Edition
FED - Dubois copy
FEJ - Jędrzejewicz copy
FES - Stirling copy
FEFr - Franchomme copy
EE - English edition
EE1 - First English Edition
EE3 - Later impression of EE1
compare
  b. 40-44

cresc. in A in bars  40-44

GE bars 40-42

FE bars 41-44

EE bars 41-44

In A, the crescendo marking links the intensifying dynamics with the formal structure; it begins together with the beginning of another version of a two-bar phrase (previously appearing in bars  34-35, 36-37, 38-39), this time based on the bar-long dominant chord in D flat/c sharp. In its further development, the music clearly breaks the two-bar pattern and leads with sequences of whole-bar harmonic blocks through an agitated stretto in bar 44 to the triumphant re-appearance of the same dominant chord in bar 45.

The shortened crescendo in GE is certainly due to the engraver's oversight.

The delayed beginning of the crescendo introduced by Chopin in FE (→EE) seems better suited to the natural flow of the music – the signal for dynamic intensification is the movement of the bass and the exhaustion of the two-bar phrase formula applied so far. 

Compare the passage in the sources »

category imprint: Differences between sources; Corrections & alterations

issues: EE revisions, Inaccuracies in GE, Authentic corrections of FE

notation: Verbal indications

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