We reproduce the way of writing down the dotted rhythms against the triplets in accordance with A (→FC). Chopin would use that notation throughout his entire oeuvre (see the chapter dedicated to that issue in: Jan Ekier, Introduction to the National Edition, Editorial Issues, p. 183). In FE (→EE), GE and CGS, the semiquavers are moved beyond the 3rd note of the triplets, in accordance with the gradually spreading newer way of writing down and interpreting such combinations. See also the Nocturne in C
Minor, Op. 27 No. 1, b. 5-13.
The issue of separating the top voice is related to the above problem. In A, the notation in which the top note of the chord is combined with the bottom notes with a stem appears more or less as many times as the notation separating the top voice from the bottom one (there are a few cases that cannot be clearly classified). More importantly, if we take into account the semiquavers only, it is the combined notation that prevails (8 to 6). In Chopin's autographs, stems in chords can generally be put imprecisely, e.g. situations in which stems do not reach a notehead at all are not infrequent (a number of examples can be found, for example, in Prelude in A
no. 17). Therefore, in the main text and in the transcription of A we adopt a notation used by Chopin undoubtedly on purpose, in which the topmost notes of the chords belong to both voices simultaneously, as a result of which the top voice is only a separate part of the figuration, and not an entirely independent part. Both Fontana in FC (→GE) and the engraver of FE (→EE) considered that notation manner to be an inaccuracy, obscuring the clarity of notation, and separated the voices.
Compare the passage in the sources »
category imprint: Differences between sources
issues: GE revisions, Dotted rhythms and triplets, FE revisions
notation: Rhythm