Chopin Nocturne op. 72/1

[iansinclair]

I was practicing this for an upcoming concert and played for a very sharp eared friend.  And a question came up.  Note that I've been playing it for quite a while.

In measure 21, in the bass (sorry I can't figure out how to post an image!) the score I'm using has the first six as F#, C#, E#, F#, A natural, G.  The second one in the score is F#, C#, E#, F#, E#, F#.  However, I have been playing the second six as F#, C#, E natural, F#, E natural, F#.  The quarter note in the treble over the last triplet is an E natural.

I think the way I'm playing it sounds better.  Critic says that may be so, but it's wrong.

Does anyone out there have a manuscript and can discern whether dear old Frederic wrote and E# in that second set of six, or did he write an E natural, cancelling the previous E#?

Help!

[themeandvariation]

Hi Iansinclair.
I don't have a copy of the original, But, it seems rather obvious to me that the last  E (m. 21) in in left hand  is indeed Still sharped… and does sound good that way! (adding a slight harmonic complexity )….  Notice that in the 33 m. in beat 4 he employs a similar harmonic juxtaposition - where the rh plays c# just before a c natural in the lh …. 
Just my opinion… But I wouldn't change the e to a natural, Unless you clearly see it in a facsimile of the original manuscript…  (From a composer's point of view, (mine) ...changing it to e natural, to my mind kind of 'dumbs down' the harmonic tension of the cadence…

[iansinclair]

Thank you... I think.

But I'm going to keep it the way I've been doing it for this concert, and then set about relearning that one measure.  Grr... nothing's as much fun as relearning something one has been playing for a long time!

[j_menz]

The manuscript appears to have been lost. The Fryderyk Chopin Institute doesn't have or identify a copy.

This bar has a few different spellings in the various editions on IMSLP. Some use an F natural instead of an E#, but the result in all of them is the same. F#, C#, E#, F#, E#, F# I'm afraid.

[iansinclair]

as I said... grr... oh well.  Here we go.

[chopinlover01]

"I know more than them."
-Igor Stravinsky, talking about the critics of his day.