Issues : Abbreviated notation of A

b. 1-22

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

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All sources except for FE (→EE) used abbreviations to write down the repeated L.H. chords. The greatest number of them is to be found in As, which is natural, in which the notation also uses informal manners of marking content, e.g. the repeated chords are marked with stems only. In some places the notation is totally incomplete and could theoretically be interpreted in different ways. In the graphical transcription ("transcription") we reproduce the notation in a closest possible way to the actual one; in the essential transcription ("edition") we present its interpretation, taking into account the knowledge provided by the final version.

In A Chopin already uses a generally adopted notation used in the case of repeated notes or figures. This is how the following are written down: the 2nd half of b. 1 and the groups of 4 identical chords in b. 7-11, 13, 15 and 19-22. In FC (→GE) the abridged notation is also used in b. 4-6; however, GE explained the abbreviation in the 2nd half of b. 1.

The use of an abbreviation in CGS was related to a wrong layout of the 2nd line of the text, most probably copied from FE – partially due to a mistake and crossings-out in b. 4, there was no more space for the 2nd half of b. 7, which prompted the copyist to use an abbreviation.

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: Abbreviated notation of A