mUltimate Chopin

Op. 28 No. 4, Prelude in E minor

Text Compare Notes Sources Description

Issues : Inaccuracies in GE

b. 12

composition: Op. 28 No. 4, Prelude in E minor

 in A & GE

 in FC & CGS

 in FE (→EE)
..

The  mark is written in A inaccurately – the top arm is clearly shorter than the bottom one. We assume the top one, written first, to be reliable. The starting point of the mark raises other doubts – strictly speaking, it is difficult to reconcile a long accent over c1 with a crescendo beginning from this very note. Consciously or not, that aspect was taken into account by the copyists independently – both in FC and CGS the mark begins from the next quaver. In general, that mark was reproduced strictly in accordance with the Stichvorlage only in EE.

category imprint: Graphic ambiguousness; Differences between sources

issues: Inaccuracies in GE , Inaccuracies in FE , Scope of dynamic hairpins , Inaccuracies in FC , Inaccuracies in A

b. 13-15

composition: Op. 28 No. 4, Prelude in E minor

No slur in As & #KGS

Slur in A (→FE→EE)

Slur to end of bar 15 in FC
..

In b. 15, at the end of the line, Fontana ambiguously ended the slur in FC – the slur goes quite far beyond the last written-down chord, which could suggest a continuation, yet it does not even reach the end of the line, which suggests that the slur should end. As the ending of the slur was overlooked on a new line, in GE the slur was led only to the last written-down chord – the minim (with a quaver tremolo marking) at the beginning of the 2nd half of the bar.

The missing slur in CGS is an oversight of the copyist, who overlooked the majority of the L.H. slurs in the second half of the Prelude. The fact that she wrote the final fragment of that slur, encompassing b. 16, is an unquestionable evidence of distraction. See also b. 17-23. 

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Inaccuracies in GE , Inaccuracies in FC , Errors in CGS

b. 16

composition: Op. 28 No. 4, Prelude in E minor

 with [] in As & A (→FC), interpretation

in FE (→EE), GE & CGS
..

The vertical line in the symbol used by Chopin to mark the grupetto indicates that the bottom note of the ornament should be raised (cf. the Nocturne in D Major, Op. 27 No. 2, b. 7). As augmented seconds are not used in grupetti, it is almost certain that Chopin did not mean g1 to be formally altered to g1, but wanted to indicate that the bottom note falls at the interval of a minor, and not major second, which results in g1 as the intended note. FE (→EE) and GE did not reproduce the Chopinesque symbol accurately nor marked that the bottom note should be altered. In the main text we reproduce the Chopinesque notation in a contemporary form.  

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Inaccuracies in GE , Inaccuracies in FE , Turn