In A (→FC→GE,→FE→EE) there is no accidental before the topmost note of the chord on the 5th quaver in the bar, hence it should be interpreted as f1. However, it is almost certainly Chopin's mistake, which is indicated by:
- f
1 present in this place in FCI and proving that this is most probably how Chopin heard this place from the very first stage of works on the Prelude. It is also a natural, somehow default sound of the sixth scale degree of the A-major scale, which appears here (c2(1) in b. 20). Therefore, if Chopin had wanted to lower that note to f1 later on, it is almost certain that he would have marked it clearly. - a possible use of minor ninth f1 would have been prepared accordingly by removing e1, as was performed by Chopin in an analogous situation two bars later – cf. b. 21, in which there is no combination of minor ninth a1 with octave g1.
- the expressive value of the interval of a minor ninth in b. 21 was emphasized by an accent; however, this phrase loses its importance when it is merely a repetition of a similar phrase from b. 19.
The composer could have been distracted by difficulties with the notation of the 1st half of that bar – in A one can see two crossed-out attempts at writing that half of the bar, each with traces of crossings-out/corrections introduced before the notation was deemed illegible. Those local corrections do not allow us to decipher the crossed-out text, contrary to the quite transparently crossed-out entire halves of the bar. What one can decipher from those crossings-out seems to be identical with the third version of notation (not crossed out) as well as with the text of FCI, which suggests that Chopin was not introducing changes, but correcting his own mistakes.
Compare the passage in the sources »
category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources; Source & stylistic information
issues: Omission of current key accidentals, Errors of A, Deletions in A
notation: Pitch