A - Autograph
| Date: | 22 I 1839 |
| Title: | 24 Préludes |
| Dedication: | Son ami J. C. Kessler |
Autograph fair-copy of all 24 Preludes, sent from Majorca on January 22, 1839 to Julian Fontana for copying. A served as the basis for the first French edition. Many deletions and corrections, a large part of which concern performance directions, represent the work devoted by Chopin to A. It was only just at the end of the work that the composer added pedalling markings, as evidenced by the lack of space for them, e.g. in the Prelude in D No. 5. The changes concerning the tempo markings were also added after the cycle had been finished and undoubtedly with mutual relations between its particular elements in mind – see, e.g. the changes in the preludes nos. 4-7 as well as 12-13 and 18.
Changes to the rhythm or pitch give on occasion an interesting insight into Chopin's process of polishing his works. Traces of important revisions are visible e.g. in the Prelude in F minor No. 18, bars 16-17 or in the iconic ending of the Prelude in D minor No. 24.
Refining such an extensive manuscript required significant effort from the composer, who was fighting an illness. In this respect, one can see a variety of errors and inaccuracies in notation, mostly a considerable number of omissions of accidentals in some of the preludes, e.g. in the Prelude in F
minor No. 8. Fortunately, only few may rise doubts as to the intention of the composer:
- lack of naturals lowering c
to c (in various octaves) in the Prelude in B minor no. 6, b. 12-14; - lack of accidentals specifying the pitch of some notes in the Prelude in F minor no. 8 – the 2nd semiquaver of the 3rd L.H. figure in b. 9 and 4th demisemiquaver of the 3rd R.H. figure in b. 23;
- lack of naturals lowering F to F (in various octaves) in the Prelude in E no. 9, b. 7;
- lack of accidentals specifying the sound of the last R.H. quaver in b. 30 in the Prelude in G minor no. 12;
- lack of raising f1 to f1 in the Prelude in A
no. 17, b. 19; - lack of
to the top note of the last chord in b. 3 in the Prelude in C minor no. 20.
In the Prelude in C, the chromatic notation is flawless; almost all visible corrections concern pitch and rhythm – see, e.g. b. 18-26 or 33. In turn, the placement of the hastily written 
marks could raise questions – see the notes on b. 2-28, 13-14 and 29-32.
| Original in: | Biblioteka Narodowa, Warsaw |
| Shelf-mark: | Mus. 93 |
