mUltimate Chopin

Op. 31, Scherzo in B♭ minor

Text Compare Notes Sources Description

Issues : Scope of dynamic hairpins

b. 162-163

composition: Op. 31, Scherzo in B♭ minor

Long accent in A (→FC→GE1)

in FE (→EE)

in GE2 (→GE3)
..

In accordance with the analysis of the Chopinesque  or  marks in this and analog. pairs of bars (see b. 6-7), in the main text we give the averaged, more or less one-bar hairpin of FE (→EE). According to us, all marks, regardless of their length, are supposed to be long accents.

category imprint: Differences between sources; Editorial revisions

issues: Long accents , Inaccuracies in FE , Scope of dynamic hairpins , GE revisions , EE inaccuracies

b. 178-180

composition: Op. 31, Scherzo in B♭ minor

from bar 178 in FC (→GE) & EE
..

An earlier start of the  hairpin is most probably an inaccuracy: of the copyist in FC (→GE) and – independently – of the engraver in EE. Cf. analogous b. 629-631.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Scope of dynamic hairpins , EE inaccuracies , Inaccuracies in FC

b. 193

composition: Op. 31, Scherzo in B♭ minor

in A

in FC

in FE & GE

in EE
..

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Inaccuracies in FE , Scope of dynamic hairpins , EE inaccuracies

b. 197-198

composition: Op. 31, Scherzo in B♭ minor

Two-bar  in A (→FC→GE1, →FE→EE)

One-and-half-bar  in GE2 (→GE3)
..

A shorter  hairpin seems to be simply a result of carelessness of the engraver of GE2 (→GE3). It is worth noting that a significant number of revisions was performed in that edition, cf. e.g. b. 203-204, yet in the discussed case there is no visible reason for such an intervention. 

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Inaccuracies in GE , Scope of dynamic hairpins

b. 227

composition: Op. 31, Scherzo in B♭ minor

No mark in A (→FE→EE)

 in FC (literal reading→GE1)

Short accent in GE2 (→GE3)

Long accent suggested by the editors
..

Interpretation of the  mark entered by Chopin into FC is problematic. Placed under the top stave, like all other dynamic hairpins in this theme, it seems to fill almost an entire bar. It was interpreted as such in GE1; it is that literal interpretation that we assume as the text of FC. However, a comparison with analogous b. 95 allows us to recognise another interpretation: in both bars Chopin most probably meant a long accent. The flamboyantly written top arm of the hairpin starts before the minim, to which this mark undoubtedly applies; it is typical of the notation of long accents, cf., e.g. the mark in the next bar or precisely in b. 95. The bottom, shorter arm, written last, may be considered more reliable in terms of the intended length of the sign, and it is as long as the unquestionable long accent in b. 228. Due to the above reason, in the main text we reproduce the mark as a long accent, like in b. 95. GE2 (→GE3) also unified this mark with b. 95.
There is a similar situation in b. 678. 

category imprint: Graphic ambiguousness; Differences between sources

issues: Long accents , Scope of dynamic hairpins , GE revisions , Authentic corrections of FC