A - Autograph
| Date: | 22 I 1839 |
| Title: | 24 Préludes |
| Dedication: | Son ami J. C. Kessler |
Autograph fair-copy of all 24 Preludes, sent from Majorca on January 22, 1839 to Julian Fontana for copying. A served as the basis for the first French edition. Many deletions and corrections together with a considerable number of various errors and inaccuracies represent the work devoted by Chopin to A but also the effort the completion of such a large manuscript demanded from the ailing composer. A more detailed description of A as a whole – see Prelude in C no. 1.
In the Prelude in C minor there are three issues that are important from the point of view of both the performers and listeners:
- form of the Prelude – there are two authentic versions of the piece, namely nine- and thirteen-bar. The latter, the only intended for publication, was written down in A with an abridgment for b. 9-12, which leads to another problem, described below;
- ritenuto in b. 7-8 and – or maybe or? – in b. 11-12;
- e1 or e
1 at the end of b. 3.
Those issues, among others, are described in detail by Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger in his article on this Prelude.*
* Le Prélude en ut mineur op. 28 no 20 de Chopin, "Revue de Musicologie", 2014 (1), pp. 67-97, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24391783.
| Original in: | Biblioteka Narodowa, Warsaw |
| Shelf-mark: | Mus. 93 |
