AsI
Main text
AsI - Working autograph of score
A - Autograph fair copy
GE - German edition
GE1 - First German edition
GE2 - Corrected impression of GE1
GE3 - Second German edition
FE - French edition
FE1 - First French edition
FE2 - Corrected impression of FE1
FESB - Later French edition
EE - English edition
EE1 - First English edition
EE2 - Corrected impression of EE1
EE3 - Revised impression of EE2
compare
  b. 135

Tempo 76 in AsI

Tempo 92 in AsI (2nd value)

Veloce ma accuratamente, 92 in A (→GEEE,FESB)

Veloce (92) in FE

In the entire Var. II AsI does not contain any performance markings except a metronome tempo. Moreover, there are two options –  = 76 (with pen, most probably earlier) and  = 92 (with pencil, later), out of which none was deleted. We do not comment on the missing marks in further, detailed notes.

The shorter tempo/character indication in FE probably comes from Chopin*, who could have marked it in the basis for FE. However, as the issue is uncertain, in the main text we keep the generally synonymous marking of A (→GEEE,FESB).


* Four years after writing this somehow pedagogical remark "ma accuratamente," Chopin could have considered it childish and certainly inappropriate. What is more, the letter in which he describes that it was only thanks to the conductor that "he was not able to play at breakneck speed" his Concerto in E minor in October 1830 allows us to assume that the real addressee of "ma accuratamente" could have been teenage Chopin himself. Therefore, it would be all the more understandable that in 1833 Chopin, conquering Paris as a pianist and composer of five works with orchestra, not to mention Nocturnes, Mazurkas, Etudes or the Trio, decided to remove this indication, evidence of his unbridled youthful temper, although it was impossible to guess its origins – if our assumptions are actually true.

Compare the passage in the sources »

category imprint: Differences between sources; Corrections & alterations; Source & stylistic information

issues: Metronome tempos, Changes of tempo markings

notation: Verbal indications

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