Main text
Main text
Afrag - Autograph fragment
A1 - Autograph fair-copy
FE - French edition
FE1 - First French edition
FE2 - Second French edition
FED - Dubois copy
GE - German edition
GE1 - First German edition
GE2 - Second German edition
EE - English edition
EE1 - First English edition
compare
  b. 7-9

Continued slur to end of bar 8 in Afrag

New slur to end of bar 8 in A1, literal reading

2 slurs in A1, contextual interpretation

New slur to bar 9 in FE1

Continued slur to bar 9 in GE

No slur in FE2 & EE

The issue of dividing or continuing the slur over the rest in b. 7 and analog. runs throughout the entire Mazurka. Both versions are undoubtedly authentic: in the case of b. 7 they appear in the preserved autographs, while in the remaining bars A1 always begins a new slur, whereas GE, based on [A2], continue the previous one. In the main text we adopt the latter as probably the latest. The differences also concern the ending of that slur, yet in this case the versions of the autographs, with a slur ending in b. 8, are probably inaccurate:

  • both in Afrag and A1, although the slur, when interpreted literally, does not reach b. 9, the shape of its ending suggests such an intention, which in the case of A1 can be found in analogous b. 32-33;
  • the above observation also applies to the slur of A1 in b. 5-6 (as well as in b. 1-2) and is confirmed by the slur in b. 9-10, which ends the first line; that slur, just like the three previous ones, does not go beyond the bar with the syncopated minim, yet its ending is in b. 11. It suggests that, according to Chopin, it was also the previous slurs that should reach the quavers opening the subsequent bars. Chopin unequivocally put such slurs in analogous b. 25-27 and 31-33;
  • the slur of FE1, reaching b. 9, may be a result of Chopin's proofreading, since in b. 64-65, based on the same notation of A1, the engraver interpreted the slur literally, ending it on the minim chord in b. 64. The proofreading could have also consisted in adding the initially overlooked slur in the last phase of corrections, which could be indicated by the missing slur in EE. It is likely that it was also the slur of FE2 in b. 64-65 that was proofread by Chopin, led – contrary to FE1 – to the chord at the beginning of b. 65.

The absence of the discussed slur in FE2 must be one of many oversights of that edition.

Compare the passage in the sources »

category imprint: Graphic ambiguousness; Differences between sources

issues: Errors in FE, Authentic corrections of FE, Uncertain slur continuation, Tenuto slurs

notation: Slurs

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