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 together with a considerable number of various errors and inaccuracies represent the work devoted by Chopin to A but also the effort the completion of such a large manuscript demanded from the ailing composer. A more detailed description of A as a whole – see Prelude in C no. 1.
Among the corrections we can see in the Prelude in D
major, the most noticeable are the following:
- more refined accompaniment, e.g. in b. 5 and 24, 8, 11 and 17, 13,
- care for coherent notation – replacing
with a triple grace note in b. 15, - the E-c
sixth changed to a C-c octave in b. 33 and 49. - changes to the rhythm of common notes in chords in b. 62 and 65.
The most serious defects of A include:
- missing
lowering c1 to c1 in b. 12, - no
or in the 2nd half of b. 75, - wrong digit (9) in the marking of an irregular group (including 10 notes) in b. 79.
| Original in: | Biblioteka Narodowa, Warszawa |
| Shelf-mark: | Mus. 93 |
