mUltimate Chopin

Op. 2, Variations, complete

Text Compare Notes Sources Description

Issues : No pedal release mark

b. 270

composition: Op. 2, Variations, complete

No marking in sources

[] suggested by the editors
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In the main text we suggest adding a  asterisk at the end of the bar. Chopin probably considered this bar an ending of the piece (movement), where he would often omit a pedal release mark. We consider it necessary to add this mark, not so much due to the need of releasing pedal before Alla Polacca starts, but to prevent possible earlier changes of pedal, which almost certainly were not intended by Chopin.

category imprint: Editorial revisions

issues: No pedal release mark

b. 282

composition: Op. 2, Variations, complete

No  in sources

[] suggested by the editors
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We consider the omission of the  mark in this bar by Chopin an oversight, and in the main text we suggest a  in a harmonically natural place.

category imprint: Editorial revisions

issues: No pedal release mark

b. 309

composition: Op. 2, Variations, complete

No  in A (→GE→FE)

in EE

[] suggested by the editors
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Single  marks appear in Chopin's pieces quite rarely and – apart from the pieces' endings – most often result from oversights of  marks supposed to complete them. According to us, this is also the case here – starting from the  mark at the beginning of this bar, there are no more pedal marks in A until the end of the line of text (in bar 311), which points to momentary distraction. Due to the above, in the main text we suggest adding a , in accordance with the harmonic sense. Such a mark was also added in EE, almost in the same place.

category imprint: Differences between sources; Editorial revisions

issues: EE revisions , No pedal release mark , Inaccuracies in A

b. 368

composition: Op. 2, Variations, complete

No sign in sources

[] suggested by the editors
..

The missing  asterisk in the sources does not have to be Chopin's oversight. In such descending figurations preceded with a bass note, we often encounter notation without this mark, which suggests that the composer resorted to such notation either when he did not want to specify the moment the pedal should be released or when he could not decide on one of the versions, cf., e.g. the Etude in D, Op. 25 No. 8, bars 19-20, 27 or the Waltz in C minor, Op. 64 No. 2, bars 15-16. On the other hand, there is a number of places (e.g. among the above examples) in which Chopin added a  mark in some sources, probably to avoid a too long or a too short pedal. Guided by similar motives, in the main text we indicate a possible pedal release in a place in which the shape of the L.H. figuration changes, thus exposing the bass line more clearly (according to Chopin's intention probably gradually, which is indicated by the subsequent change of notation in bar 370).

category imprint: Editorial revisions

issues: No pedal release mark