b. 57

Fingering written into FES

No teaching fingering

In the main text we give the fingering digit entered most probably by Chopin into FES. One can have doubts whether the entry indicates that the note should be performed with the left or the right hand.
Arguments for the left hand:

  • no unequivocal marking indicating that the note should be taken over by the right hand, e.g. a stem pointing upwards, like in b. 47;
  • indicating the 1st finger – if it were the right hand, one could use any finger, e.g. 3rd, which seems to be most natural here.

Arguments for the right hand:

  • the very fact of indicating the 1st finger – the use of the 1st L.H. finger naturally results from the notation and the shape of the melody and would not require an additional marking;
  • the digit having been placed over the note, which Chopin would use to mark R.H. fingers in unobvious situations concerning the division of the text between hands, e.g. in the Etude in E Minor, Op. 10 No. 6, b. 7, 15 and analog., or in the Ballade in F Minor, Op. 52, b. 91-92 (however, Chopin did not always observe that rule – see, e.g. b. 49, in which the L.H. fingering is written over the notes in FES).

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: Annotations in teaching copies, Annotations in FES

notation: Fingering

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