mUltimate Chopin

FE1

Main text

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

EE2 - Revised impression of EE1a

EE1a - Corrected impression of EE1

compare image transcript edited text

b. 1-5

		Pedalling in A, contextual interpretation
		Pedalling in FC
		Pedalling in FE (→EE)
		Pedalling in GE

The pedalling markings in these bars were not clearly and precisely marked in any of the sources. There were several reasons for this:

The inaccuracy of A – subsequent lines of the text are written without spaces in this Prelude, as a result of which there was no place for pedalling markings, added later. Wherever the marks fell under the lowest L.H. notes, A in b. 1 and 2, D in b. 5, in order to avoid that the markings blend in with beams or stems, Chopin would write a in front of those elements. When interpreted literally, in accordance with the rule of correlating the marks vertically, they fall already before the previous semiquavers. The marks, which precede them, are also placed earlier. The correct interpretation of the markings is indicated by the unequivocal notation of analogous figures in b. 3-4 as well as by the harmonic sense (the last semiquaver in b. 4 still belongs to the dominant chord).
The inaccuracies in the decipherment or the mistakes in the interpretation of the notation of A by Fontana and the engraver of FE. In the case of FC, it is paradoxically the too literal reproduction of the notation of A that is to be considered a mistake of interpretation – the copyist had space to write the marks under the right notes, but placed them before them (in accordance with A), which complicated the work of the engraver of GE (see below). Moreover, the copyist increased the gaps between the and marks, which, at the end of b. 2 and at the beginning of b. 4, moved the asterisks a semiquaver earlier. In FE it is also both marks in b. 1 and the mark at the end of b. 4 that were placed too early.
The mistakes (the final pair of markings in b. 4 was overlooked) and revisions of GE, in which attempts were made to adjust the markings to clear rhythmic structures, e.g. groups encompassed with one beam or bars (a frequent practice in Breitkopf & Härtel's publications).

Op. 28 No. 5, Prelude in D major