FCI - Fontana's copy I
| Date: | (1837) |
| Title: | [Prélude] |
| Dedication: | None |
Fontana’s copy made from [AI] – a lost autograph of an earlier version of the Prelude. Although this version of the piece contains as many bars as the one intended for printing, there are two places in which the length of analogous phrases differs:
- there is an additional bar between b. 31-32 in FCI, which we mark as 31' to avoid complications (otherwise we would have had to use double numeration),
- in FCI the ending of the Prelude is shorter – b. 83 is missing.
The mUltimate Chopin editors had insight into a poorly legible photocopy of the source, hence some interpretations are uncertain. For example, it seems that certain elements of notation are written in pencil, perhaps later and by a foreign hand. It concerns, e.g. the only slur in b. 9, the tie to b
1 in b. 10-11, the cross over the bar line before b. 17, the sharps raising g-g1 to g
-g1 in b. 25.
The text of FCI differs from the final version in a significant number of details, which offers us insight into the enhancement process (carried out by Chopin):
- Both aforementioned changes to the length of phrase concern music of transitional nature, passage-like, preparing the return of the main theme the first time, and closing the melodic movement of the top voice before the seven-bar coda the second time.
- There are very few changes to the main melodic line, the most significant of which is in b. 55-56. Moreover, Chopin added mordents in b. 43 and 47 as well as changed the rhythmic shape of the melody by repeating notes that were initially tied (b. 19 or 20-21) or vice versa – by replacing actually played notes with tied ones (b. 46-47 and 80-81).
- Among the major harmonic changes, one has to mention a smoother harmonic sequence in b. 32-33, additional sevenths in the chords in b. 68, 70 and 76-77, adjusting the rhythm of the harmonic changes to the overriding rhythmic structure in b. 54.
- In a number of places, bass notes were moved to different octaves or enhanced with octaves, e.g. in b. 13, 16-17 or 37-40.
- The most numerous group of changes is that concerning the density and arrangement of chords as well as the division of the text between the hands, e.g. in b. 5, 7 or 10.
- The tempo marking of the Prelude was simplified.
- All pedal markings and slurs were added (except the aforementioned slur in b. 9, whose range was, however, changed too).
- Other performance marks were supplemented and revised – dynamic indications, accents, staccato dots.
| Original in: | Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna |
| Shelf-mark: | None |
