FC
Main text
FCI - Fontana's copy I
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. 83

This bar is absent in FCI, which could be seen as one more example of haplography – cf. the versions of FC in the Prelude in G minor no. 12, b. 78-79 or in B major no. 21, b. 54. However, according to us, this version keeping a regular, two-bar gap also between the last strokes of the bass A1 (in FCI it is not repeated anymore in b. 88) suggests that this is the initial version, expanded later by Chopin:

  • he added a stroke of the bass note in b. 88 while gradually reducing its frequency;
  • he improved the combination of the main theme of the Prelude with the ending by repeating the motif twice as a calming factor, first to a two-bar section (b. 79-80 and 81-82) and then one-bar section (b. 82 and 83).

Compare the passage in the sources »

category imprint: Differences between sources; Corrections & alterations

issues: Changed phrase length

notation: Rhythm

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Original in: Biblioteka Narodowego Instytutu Fryderyka Chopina, Warszawa