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Main text
AsI - Working autograph of the score
A - Autograph fair copy
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  b. 1-5

Arpeggios from f1 in AsI, basic version

Arpeggios from b1, c2, d2b1 in AsI, later version, contextual interpretation

Arpeggios from b1, c2, d2b1 in A

In the principal AsI version the R.H. hemidemisemiquaver figures in bars 1-2 and 5-6 and in the 2nd half of bar 7 (see the notes in bars 2-6 and 7) do not advance in parallel to the semiquavers constituting the melody, as it is in the A version. Therefore, mixing particular elements of the AsI and A versions does not seem to be advisable here. Moreover, the 2nd quaver figuration in bars 1 and 5 is based on a tonic chord, as in the adjacent figures. The version of the 1st half of bar 1 added in AsI, close to the later A version (with an already changed chord on the 2nd quaver), may suggest that it is acceptable to combine it with the initial version, as Chopin did not add here a continuation compliant with A. However, according to us, the notation is to be regarded only as a draft of a new idea, containing the default instruction 'and so on and so forth'. This is indicated by bar 17, in which the final version is marked in the form of a similar addition throughout the entire bar, which most probably means that it is supposed to be led analogously also further on, in bars 2, 6, 18 and 22. Chopin struggled most with the 2nd quaver in the bar, functioning in 3 different versions even after giving up the initial tonic chord – in addition to the two versions provided here, there is also a version of the AsI addition in bar 17, where the R.H. part text is already compliant with A (c2-e2-a2-c3), but the L.H. passage still has c1 as the 2nd note. We consider the alternative version of the 2nd quaver of bar 1 in AsI to be a variant of the later version (written out in full in A), probably quite quickly rejected in the R.H. part, since in bar 17 Chopin already added the latest version of the passage.

Compare the passage in the sources »

category imprint: Differences between sources; Corrections & alterations

issues: Accompaniment changes

notation: Pitch

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