Music Notation Question (Chopin's 1st Ballade - G minor)

[mollys]

Hi -

When you have a group of eighth notes connected by a beam, what does it mean when one of these notes is unfilled (hollow). For example, I'm looking at Chopin's first ballade (g minor, op. 23).

In Bar 8 when the time signature changes to 6/4, you see five notes in the treble clef connected by a beam. The first of these notes is unfilled. I assumed at first that this means that you hold this note for the value of two eighth notes before moving on to the next note. But now I'm wondering if it means you hold it "while" playing the next note. I'm confused because when I listened to recordings of this by professionals, at least from the few I checked it doesn't appear to me that they hold it longer. Also, I tried to check by adding up the value of everything in the bar, because it's supposed to total to six beats in a measure with the quarter note getting the beat. When you do this, there doesn't appear to be room for this to be held longer.

Alternatively, if it means you're supposed to hold it "while" playing the next note, this doesn't make sense to me because you pedal through this entire section anyway according to the pedalling marks, so it would have no effect on the sound produced. Anyway, thanks.

You can see the first page of the score here:
https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/look_inside/5001081/image/232712

I'm using a different edition (Henle Urtext). It shows the same thing.

[gyzzzmo]

You should indeed hold them as long as indicated, while playing those other notes, for example where the 6/4 starts. You can also see that those notes are connected with that eight-flag, wich tells you you should time them as eight' notes. And some of them have an extra stick downwards and/or are unfilled, wich indicates how long you should hold them pressed in.

About pedalling..... I never took pedalling signs seriously since theyre usually something the editor added and they often just arent right, for example the score you linked says you should hold the pedal quite alot at the 6/4 part. I myself dont use pedal there at all, or very little because it quickly gets messy. Its much better to play notes very legato, but also harder. But if a pianist cant do that, he shouldnt be playing that ballade in the first place

So, dont take pedal signs seriously, use pedal to smooth notes that belong to a certain chord. For the rest play legato. You can hear yourself when things start sounding abit 'messy' when holding the pedal.

Gyzzzmo

[adapa]

The first three notes in the group are to be held for the duration of the group. That should be C, D and F# for the first group. Release when you get to the G. I get the impression that everyone just do as they want with pedaling in the first section. I pedal quite much, others will just use it to bind the melody together. Just make sure you make the top notes sing and make the accompanying double notes not staccato, but rather portato-like. Good luck!

[ara9100]

I think that you will find that 99 % of the pedal markings in Chopins pieces are his own. And pedal usage is very important in phrasing the piece correctly.