GE1
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. 1

A staccato dot in A

No dot in GE (→FEEE)

The editors' variant proposal

There are four places in A (here and in bars  11, 36 and 57), where bass notes are furnished with dots. Those dots seem to be staccato dots, yet strangely none of them appears in  GE (→FEEE). The dots in bars 11 and 36 are placed higher than foreseen by rules of musical notation (this specifically applies to the dot in bar 11), yet this can be explained by corrections (erasures) that Chopin made in those places.

We often come across staccato dots over bass notes in similar contexts in Chopin's works, also complete with slurs (the slurs in bar 1 of the Nocturne are surely given as a model to be followed and are binding throughout the entire piece). Cf. for example Etude in A flat op. 10 no.10, bars 1, 7 and 16, or Ballade in F op. 52, bars 2, 4 and 12.

On the other hand, in A similar dots can be found in places not connected with the notation of the Nocturne, e.g. in bars 11 and 57. Thus, the accidental nature of some or all of the dots cannot be ruled out and therefore we always give them in parentheses as optional.

Compare the passage in the sources »

category imprint: Differences between sources

notation: Articulation, Accents, Hairpins

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