FCI
Main text
FCI - Fontana's copy of earlier version
A - Autograph
FC - Fontana's copy
FE - French edition
FE1 - First French edition
FE2 - Corrected impression of FE1
FED - Dubois copy
FEJ - Jędrzejewicz Copy
FES - Stirling copy
FESch - Scherbatoff copy
GE - German edition
GE1 - First German edition
GE2 - Revised impression of GE1
GE3 - Corrected impression of GE2
EE - English edition
EE1 - First English edition
EE1a - Corrected impression of EE1
EE2 - Revised impression of EE1a
compare
  b. 17

Rhythm in #CFI & A (→FEEE), & also FC (source interpretation)

Rhythm in FC (contextual interpretation→GE)

The rhythm in the 2nd half of the bar, when compared with similar situations in the entire Prelude, raises doubts whether the mitigation of the dotted rhythm was not a mistake of Chopin. It would be supported by FCI, in which rhythms featuring a quaver (or even a crotchet) can be found in b. 16-25 as well as in b. 7 and 9. Therefore, the rhythm of A in the discussed bar could be considered the initial rhythm, copied by mistake. This is the kind of correction we most probably observe in A in b. 9 – Chopin shortened there the initially written e2 quaver to a semiquaver, prolonging the preceding f2 minim with a 3rd dot accordingly. In spite of that, we believe that the text of A is free from mistakes here, since this place is unique in terms of melody and harmony – d2 is the only altered note in the melodic line in the entire Prelude – its significance was emphasized by an exceptional performance marking,  underlining the motif of an ascending second (d2-e2).

That uniqueness probably became the reason for Fontana's mistake, who erroneously wrote down the last note in the bar in FC as a semiquaver (following a crotchet provided with one dot), which was then changed in GE to , which can be seen in the remaining similar situations.

Compare the passage in the sources »

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: GE revisions, Errors of FC

notation: Rhythm

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