mUltimate Chopin

Op. 2, Variations, complete

Text Compare Notes Sources Description

Issues : Inaccuracies in A

b. 335

composition: Op. 2, Variations, complete

..

As in the entire Variations, while writing A Chopin treated accidentals almost like key signature accidentals – he considered them to be valid in all octaves on a given stave and in a given clef. Therefore, in the R.H. part the last entered accidental is a  to d1, while in the L.H. part it is the sharps to D, f and all starting from d2 that are missing. All necessary accidentals – assuming that they are also valid for notes at the same pitch under the octave sign – were added already in GE (→FE,EE, in the latter the notes under the octave sign were also provided with accidentals).

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: Accidentals in different octaves , GE revisions , Inaccuracies in A

b. 363-366

composition: Op. 2, Variations, complete

..

As before (bars 349-352), in A Chopin writes accidentals only to the top notes of the octaves (in the R.H. and in the L.H.). He then considers these accidentals to be valid throughout an entire bar in all octaves of a given stave. All the omitted accidentals – 27 flats to d and g and 2 naturals to e – were already added in GE1 and were repeated in the remaining editions.
In the main text we omit the  to the d3 semiquaver in bar 363, unnecessarily repeated by Chopin. We do not include the  to the next semiquaver, d2, either, added in GE (→FE,EE). 

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: Accidentals in different octaves , GE revisions , Cautionary accidentals , Inaccuracies in A

b. 367

composition: Op. 2, Variations, complete

pédale de la basse in AsI

 after first quaver in A, literal reading

 under 2nd quaver in GE (→FE,EE,FESB)

 under 1st quaver suggested by the editors
..

The placement of the  mark in A does not allow us to reproduce Chopin's intention unequivocally. Statistically speaking, Chopin would write a  mark more often – especially in the case of low-placed bass notes – before the note it was supposed to concern than after such note, but his autographs include both situations. Therefore, we assume that in this case it is the pianistic context that is decisive – bass pedal notes belong to Chopin's favourite harmonic procedures, hence the doubled F1-F octave held with pedal seems to be more likely than the solution adopted by the editions. This conclusion is confirmed by the notation of AsI – the 'bass pedal' indication written under the semiquaver figuration undoubtedly refers to the reverberation of the initial octave, which in the orchestral part is sustained by the f note, played in bars 367-368 by the bassoon, while in bars 369-370 by the French horn. 

category imprint: Graphic ambiguousness; Differences between sources; Editorial revisions

issues: GE revisions , Inaccuracies in A