mUltimate Chopin

Op. 28 No. 8, Prelude in F♯ minor

Text Compare Notes Sources Description

Issues : FE revisions

b. 9-12

composition: Op. 28 No. 8, Prelude in F♯ minor

Dashes in bars 9-10 in A (→FC)

Dashes up to mid-bar 12 in FE

Dashes up to end of bar 12 in EE

No dashes in GE
..

The missing dashes marking the range of crescendo is a frequent inaccuracy of Chopinesque first editions. In turn, it is more difficult to evaluate the extension of their range in FE (→EE). The reviser or engraver could have considered the markings in b. 12-13 () to be a natural ending of the crescendo and assumed that the missing dashes were a result of the composer's inadvertence. However, that reasoning is not as obvious as it seems at first glance – after the ascending progression in b. 9-10, based on the f pedal note, the following one and a half bar brings rather a momentary respite due to the descending sequence of half-bar cadences. Due to the above reason, in the main text we keep the version of A (→FC).

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Inaccuracies in GE , FE revisions

b. 9

composition: Op. 28 No. 8, Prelude in F♯ minor

..

In A (→FC→GE) there is a  before b in the 3rd figure of the accompaniment. The unnecessarily repeated accidental was removed in FE (→EE1) but reinstated in EE2. According to us, the crossings-out visible in A in this figure point to a possible mistake of Chopin – that superfluous  was perhaps to be placed before the previous semiquaver, lowering it from g to g.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: EE revisions , Cautionary accidentals , FE revisions

b. 10

composition: Op. 28 No. 8, Prelude in F♯ minor

No slur in A

Slur in FC (→GE) & FE (→EE)
..

The missing slur over the 1st L.H. figure must be Chopin's mistake. The slur was added in both sources based on A, perhaps not even having noticed its absence.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Errors of A , FE revisions , Fontana's revisions

b. 13

composition: Op. 28 No. 8, Prelude in F♯ minor

f1 in A (→FE1,FC→GE)

f1 in FE2 (→EE)
..

The version with f1, although harmonically possible, is, however, most probably erroneous – in the entire Prelude, in the vast majority of the eight-note figures, the 3rd demisemiquaver is placed a half a tone lower than the 5th one. Therefore, the natural added in FE2 (→EE) is most probably an accurate addition, although Chopin's participation in that intervention is uncertain.

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: Omissions to cancel alteration , Errors of A , FE revisions

b. 21

composition: Op. 28 No. 8, Prelude in F♯ minor

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The fourth demisemiquaver of the 3rd group and the 3rd note of the 4th group should be interpreted in A (→FC→GE) as g2, since there are no accidentals next to them, and the note at this pitch in the 2nd group is provided with a . Both the harmonic context and the rule of the figurations' structure applied in a vast majority of the cases (cf. b. 4 and 13) are strong arguments in favour of the assumption that Chopin overlooked the  restoring g2. The accidental was added in FE (→EE). 

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: Omissions to cancel alteration , Errors of A , FE revisions , Errors repeated in GE