Issues : Inaccuracies in FC

b. 178-180

composition: Op. 31, Scherzo in B♭ minor

from bar 178 in FC (→GE) & EE

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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. 310-333

composition: Op. 31, Scherzo in B♭ minor

6 longer, 6 shorter slurs in A

2 longer, 9 shorter slurs in FC

10 longer slurs in FE

3 longer, 9 shorter slurs in GE1

9 longer slurs in EE

12 shorter slurs in GE2 (→GE3)

12 longer slurs suggested by the editors

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The slurs over the motifs of the bottom voice in A are of different length: they encompass the quavers only or reach the minim in the next bar. On many occasions, it is difficult or even impossible to say conclusively which of the slurs Chopin meant. Since there is no visible reason for those actually identical motifs to have different slurs, in the main text we unify them, assuming the six-note slurs to be more frequent in A. None of the remaining sources reproduced Chopin's notation accurately; the differences in FC and FE are exclusively of an accidental nature, whereas GE1, EE and GE2 (→GE3) also introduced arbitrary changes, ordering the notation.

category imprint: Graphic ambiguousness; Differences between sources; Editorial revisions

issues: EE revisions , Errors in FE , Inaccuracies in GE , Inaccuracies in FE , Inaccurate slurs in A , GE revisions , Errors of FC , Inaccuracies in FC

b. 338-347

composition: Op. 31, Scherzo in B♭ minor

Three-note slurs in A (literal readingFEEE)

Two- & three-note slurs in FC (→GE1)

Two-note slurs in GE2 (→GE3)

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When interpreted literally, the slurs of A in b. 338-339 & 346-347 seem to be reaching the bass note in the next bar. However, according to us, it is an inaccuracy, a manner of writing slurs significantly going beyond the intended range, cf., e.g. the phrase marks in b. 320 (corrected) & 326 (see also the Mazurka in G Minor, Op. 24 No. 1, b. 21, 23-24). Due to the above reason, in the main text we give pianistically natural slurs, modelled after the ones Chopin wrote in analogous b. 440-441 & 448-449. Such a solution was introduced already in GE2 (→GE3). The first slur of FC (→GE1), which is shorter, is probably accidental: the copyist forgot to put the ending of the slur in a new line of the text.

category imprint: Graphic ambiguousness; Differences between sources

issues: Inaccurate slurs in A , Embracing slurs , Inaccuracies in FC

b. 348

composition: Op. 31, Scherzo in B♭ minor

Slur from f in A (→FE,FCGE)

Slur from B in EE

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The version of EE, which can be considered an interpretation – ignoring the musical sense – of the slur of A, written with panache, could have been repeated after FE, which, after all, was based on A. In the very FE the erroneous slur would have been corrected in the last phase of proofreading (although there are no visible traces of such a correction on the available photocopies of FE copies). In turn, the slur in GE1 – beginning from f in the previous bar – is completely erroneous. The engraver could have mistaken the bars, since they end with the same note (the mistake was corrected in subsequent GE).

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: Inaccurate slurs in A , Errors in GE , GE revisions , Authentic corrections of FE , Inaccuracies in FC

b. 376-378

composition: Op. 31, Scherzo in B♭ minor

Slur to e1 in A (→FEEE)

Slur to bar 378 in FC (→GE)

Slur to end of bar 376 suggested by the editors

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In this case, the easiest explanation for the longer phrase mark of FC (→GE) is a mistake resulting from the change of division of the text into lines. The phrase mark in A reaches almost the end of the line, since b. 377, which ends it, is very tight. The copyist wrote an entire phrase in that line, until b. 378, and wrote a phrase mark whose range was similar to A, yet measured in relation to the end of the line. The ending of the tie of c1, put in A in b. 378, is an alternative opportunity to commit a mistake: Chopin did not place it at the pitch of the note head, but at the end of the stem, as a result of which it looks like a phrase mark.

category imprint: Differences between sources; Editorial revisions

issues: Inaccuracies in FC