A
Main text
A - Autograph
FC - Fontana's copy
FE - French edition
FE1 - First French edition
FED - Dubois copy
FES - Stirling copy
FESf - Schiffmacher copy
GE - German edition
GE1 - First German edition
GE2 - Second German edition
GE3 - Corrected impression of GE2
EE - English edition
EE1 - First English edition
EE2 - Revised impression of EE1
EE3 - Corrected impression of EE2
compare
  b. 706

g2-c3-g3 in A (literal reading→FEEE)

g2-c3-g3 in FC (→GE)

According to us, the version written in A (→FEEE) – the g2-c3-g3 chord – is erroneous, although there is no proof thereof in the sources, since the naturals added in FC were almost certainly not written by Chopin's hand. There are also no annotations in the preserved teaching copies. Chopin's mistake, corrected by Fontana, is supported by the following arguments:

  • The motif of four notes, characteristic of this theme, out of which the third one, being a repetition of the previous two, creates a dissonance (delay) with the chord being the basis of the L.H. figuration. This motif or its variant appear on several occasions, and it constitutes the main thematic material in the extensive ending of the theme: see b. 687-688, 695-696, 699-700, 701-702, 703-704. In the discussed bar, the use of a chord featuring g2-g3 creates one more appearance of this motif, organically combining the final climax of the theme with the preceding progression.
  • Other examples of Fontana's accurate revisions in the Scherzo – adding an octave sign in b. 31-33 and 262, overlooked by Chopin, and probably a natural raising g2 to g2 in b. 209.

EE2 (→EE3) arbitrarily added cautionary flats before the discussed notes.

Compare the passage in the sources »

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: EE revisions, Errors of A, Fontana's revisions

notation: Pitch

Go to the music

Original in: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paryż