Main text
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. 568-572

No signs in A (→FCGE1, →FEEE)

3 arpeggio signs in GE2 (→GE3)

1 arpeggio sign, our alternative suggestion

One can ponder whether the missing L.H. arpeggios in b. 568, 570 and 572 were intended by Chopin, particularly since he overlooked a few signs in this entire section, certainly (b. 557) or probably (b. 562 and 564). According to us, an intentional omission is more likely:

  • Chopin could have considered them superfluous in the face of a smaller span of the chords;
  • a gradual reduction in the number of arpeggios could have been related to diminuendo, which started in b. 567;
  • Chopin could have intentionally returned to marking arpeggios in both hands in b. 566 in order to emphasise the difference with respect to b. 568, in which it is only the R.H. chord that is provided with an arpeggio sign.

In this situation, in the main text we preserve the version without arpeggios, present in A and in the majority of the sources; we also suggest a possible alternative version with an arpeggio in b. 568 only. Moreover, we consider it acceptable to perform all chords as arpeggios (as it is in GE2 and GE3), yet only when the corresponding R.H. arpeggios are taken into account.

Compare the passage in the sources »

category imprint: Differences between sources; Editorial revisions

issues: GE revisions

notation: Pitch

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