mUltimate Chopin

Op. 28 No. 17, Prelude in A♭ major

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b. 56

composition: Op. 28 No. 17, Prelude in A♭ major

..

At the beginning of the bar, in FCI one can see a quaver dyad in the bottom R.H. voice. The top note is d2, while the pitch of the bottom note is poorly legible on the available photograph – it can be g1 or g1 transformed into a1. To our interpretation of FCI we adopt the latter, i.e. a self-correction of the copyist resulting in a1.

category imprint: Graphic ambiguousness

b. 59-61

composition: Op. 28 No. 17, Prelude in A♭ major

..

FCI has e as a bass note in bars 59 and 61.

category imprint: Differences between sources; Corrections & alterations; Source & stylistic information

issues: Bass register changes

b. 61-64

composition: Op. 28 No. 17, Prelude in A♭ major

 , cresc. - - dim.,  in FCI

  in A (→FC→GE, →FE→EE)
..

In the manuscripts the dynamic indications are placed under the L.H. part, which must have resulted from lack of space between the staves. Due to the abridged notation of these bars in the manuscripts, it is impossible to accurately determine the range of those indications – it differs depending on whether we examine them in relation to the bar lines or the written-down notes.

In the final version, the more abundant dynamic indications of FCI were reduced to the indispensable minimum.

category imprint: Differences between sources; Corrections & alterations

b. 64

composition: Op. 28 No. 17, Prelude in A♭ major

..

In FCI the last e1-b1 fifth is not tied to the next bar. It may be the initial version or the copyist's oversight.

category imprint: Differences between sources; Corrections & alterations

b. 65

composition: Op. 28 No. 17, Prelude in A♭ major

 in FCI, FC (→GE) & AM

No marking in A (→FE→EE)
..

The missing  in A (→FE→EE) must be Chopin's inadvertence; while adding those marks on the last page of the Prelude, he could have easily overlooked this bar, written as the only one still on the previous page of A (see above, the note on the slur). The fact that this note was also supposed to be accented (like all the others) is proven by FCI, AM as well as by a testimony of Chopin's pupil, Madame Dubois, conveyed by Ignacy Jan Paderewski:* 

"I remember once when I was playing the 17th Prelude of Chopin, Madame Dubois said that Chopin himself used to play that bass note [A1] in the final section (in spite of playing everything else diminuendo) with great strength. He always struck that note in the same way and with the same strength, because of the meaning he attached to it. He accentuated that bass note—he proclaimed it, because the idea of that Prelude is based on the sound of an old clock in the castle which strikes the eleventh hour. [...] Chopin always insisted the bass note should be struck with the same strength—no diminuendo, because the clock knows no diminuendo.”

Fontana, who knew the Prelude from a still earlier version, apparently memorized that effect, since he added  in FC (→GE).

* I. J. Paderewski, Mary Lawton, The Paderewski Memoirs, London 1939, p. 154.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Errors of A , Fontana's revisions