mUltimate Chopin

Op. 28 No. 8, Prelude in F♯ minor

Text Compare Notes Sources Description

Issues : Errors in GE

b. 1-2

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

Long accents in A (→FC), contextual interpretation

4 short accents in FE

No marks in GE 

3 vertical accents in EE
..

The long accents written in A (→FC) were not reproduced correctly in any of the editions. Both the shorter marks in FE and their omission in GE could have been related to a very dense and not always rational vertical text layout. The change of the accents' font in EE is a revision, typical of that edition, while the omission of the third mark – an oversight.
In the main text we also include – unlike FE – the accents in b. 2, marked in the manuscripts as a repetition of b. 1. This issue is generally ambiguous, e.g. tempo/character indications are certainly not to be repeated, but slurs and pedalling marks continued in the next bars should definitely be repeated. In the case of accents, both possibilities are actually equivalent in this context – the marks are given here as a pattern and should be applied also in the next bars, hence the number of explicitly given accents (4 or 8) is insignificant (cf., e.g. the accents at the beginning of the Prelude No. 6 in B Minor or the Etude in C Major, Op. 10 No. 1). 

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: Long accents , EE revisions , Inaccuracies in FE , Errors in EE , Errors in GE

b. 5

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

..

In A there is no accidental before the 1st note in the 4th group of demisemiquavers, which should therefore be interpreted as a1. A comparison with analogous b. 1 proves Chopin's mistake; it is also the  before the next a2 that confirms a1 as the intended pitch of that note. The natural was added in FC and FE (→EE); however, it is absent in GE, which is probably an oversight of the engraver.
We omit the cautionary  before a2 in the main text.

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources; Source & stylistic information

issues: Errors in GE , Cautionary accidentals , Errors of A , FE revisions , Fontana's revisions

b. 24-26

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

dim. - - in bar 24 in A (→FE→EE)

dim. - - - in bars 24-26 in FC

No indication in GE
..

In the main text we reproduce the range of cresc. marked with dashes in accordance with the notation of A (→FE→EE). Dashes running almost until the end of b. 26 in FC was an arbitrary decision of Fontana or perhaps a mistake – the dashes in FC end more or less in a place where they would have ended if they had been written in A a line lower. The omission of the entire indication in GE is a patent mistake.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Errors in GE , Fontana's revisions

b. 34

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

Arpeggio to whole chord in A (→FC,FE→EE)

Arpeggio on lower staff in GE
..

The shortened arpeggio sign is an error or arbitrary revision of GE.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: Errors in GE , GE revisions