It is very difficult to figure out Chopin's intentions concerning the slur that begins over g flat3 in A. The following options come to mind:
- The notation of the slur corresponds to Chopin's intentions. This would be an example of the tenuto slur that we see e.g. in Ballade Op. 23, bars 87 and 88. This option, which we consider to be less likely, is presented in the "Transcription" variant.
- The slur was supposed to lead to the chord on the 4th quaver of the bar, just like the slur visible in the deleted fragment joined 5th and the 6th quaver. It remains unclear whether Chopin intended to keep the slur but forgot to lengthen it or whether the slur was left in the text due to oversight. We try to accommodate both those options in the "Edited Text" variant giving the slur in brackets.
Yet, regardless of how we decide to interpret the slur found in the text of A , the fact is that the slur is not to be found in any of the editions. Bearing in mind that one of the editions (GE) could have been and another (FE) definitely was corrected by Chopin, and taking into consideration the ambiguity of A, we omit the slur in the main text.
category imprint: Graphic ambiguousness; Interpretations within context; Differences between sources
notation: Slurs
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