A
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

The version of A (→GEFEEE)

The version of FEFr corrected by the editors

Franchomme described the variant of the Nocturne opening that he gave in FEFr as „the change made by the author”. However, his version is not free from inaccuracies. A flat instead of f as the last semiquaver note of each group is certainly erroneous (Franchomme made the same mistake twice more, notating a variant of bar 28 in FEFr). The note D flat at the beginning of the second bar of the variant is also doubtful. In a similar context, shifting the bass down an octave often appears only once in Chopin's works, at the beginning of the harmony - cf. bars 1-4 of this Nocturne in its main version or bars 81-86 of the Sonata in B op. 35, mvt. II. The original Chopin's notation of that variant was probably in the form of an abbreviation (‘bis’ or  ∕∕); use of such abbreviations often resulted in mistakes in the score (autographs of the Impromptu in C sharp WN 46, bar 121, or Sonata in B op. 58, mvt. IV, bar 177). Bearing all that in mind, the following execution of the variant seems admissible: 

Compare the passage in the sources »

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Annotations in FEFr, Authentic post-publication changes and variants

notation: Rhythm

Go to the music

.