The slurring of bars 203-210 is clearly inaccurate and incomplete in the sources, which, probably, reflects carelessness of [A] in this respect to a certain extent. According to us, these so similar passages, as far as the piano performance is concerned, should be performed and marked in a similar way; in turn, in the entire section, we see only 3 slurs and each of them is different: over the 1st beat of bar 203, over the 2nd and 3rd beats of bar 205 and over all semiquavers in bar 209 until the very first one in bar 210 (in bars 207-208, there is no slur). In this situation, in the main text we suggest a unified slurring, based on the following assumptions:
- Beginnings and endings of the suggested slurs appear in this form in the sources at least in one of the analogous places – beginning of the slur in bar 209 and ending of the slur in bar 205. The inaccurate beginning of the slur of the editions in bar 205 can be easily explained by the graphic layout – if the slur of [A] had been led on the top stave, the engraver could have missed its relation to the first two semiquavers of the passage written on the bottom stave. One can see how slurs of the base text could look like and how they were reproduced in an edition based on it in, e.g. the beginning of the Etude in F major, op. 10, no. 8.
- We include the slurs indicating links with a natural phrasing and hand position – such an approach eliminates the slur of the editions in bar 203. According to us, the slur could have been inversely inserted by the engraver – the left-hand ending was supposed to be next to the two semiquavers at the bottom, whereas the right-hand one – over the top stave.
In the main text, we leave the ending of the slur in bar 209-210 unchanged – leading the slur to the 1st semiquaver in bar 210 suggests its continuation, but such a conclusion is a hypothesis only; moreover, the range of the possibly extended slur is unknown (the slur encompassing also the 1st beat of bar 210 seems to be the most likely option).
In GE3, all slurs were omitted. The reviser might have considered it to be impossible to deduce the phrasing of these passages conceived by Chopin on the basis of the fragmentary and inaccurate slurs of FE (→GE1→GE2); therefore, he would rather have left articulation and phrasing to the discretion of the performer than give erroneous slurs.
Compare the passage in the sources »
category imprint: Differences between sources; Editorial revisions
issues: Inaccuracies in FE, GE revisions
notation: Slurs