and that he himself had copied them. Now with
Chopin’s letters to Fontana before us we must
come to the conclusion that Gutmann was either under
a false impression or confirmed a rash statement by
a bold assertion, unless we prefer to assume that
Chopin’s labours on the Preludes in Majorca were
confined to selecting, [footnote: Internal
evidence suggests that the Preludes consist (to a
great extent at least) of pickings from the composer’s
portfolios, of pieces, sketches, and memoranda written
at various times and kept to be utilised when occasion
might offer.] filing, and polishing. My opinion—which
not only has probability but also the low opus number
(28) and the letters in its favour—is that
most of the Preludes, if not all, were finished or
sketched before Chopin went to the south, and that
a few, if any, were composed and the whole revised
at Palma and Valdemosa. Chopin cannot have composed
many in Majorca, because a few days after his arrival
there he wrote: from Palma (Nov. 15, 1838) to
Fontana that he would send the Preludes soon; and
it was only his illness that prevented him from doing
so. There is one statement in George Sand’s
above-quoted narrative which it is difficult to reconcile
with other statements in “Un Hiver a Majorque”
and in her and Chopin’s letters. In the
just-mentioned book (p. 177) she says that the journey
in question was made for the purpose of rescuing the
piano from the hands of the custom-house officers;
and in a letter of January 15, 1839, to her friend
Madame Marliani (quoted on p. 31), which does not
contain a word about adventures on a stormy night,
[They are first mentioned in the letter of January
20, 1839, quoted on p. 32.] she writes that the piano
is still in the clutches of the custom-house officers.
From this, I think, we may conclude that it must have
taken place after January 15. But, then, how could
Chopin have composed on that occasion a Prelude included
in a work the manuscript of which he sent away on
the lath? Still, this does not quite settle the
question. Is it not possible that Chopin may
have afterwards substituted the new Prelude for one
of those already forwarded to France? To this
our answer must be that it is possible, but that the
letters do not give any support to such an assumption.
Another and stronger objection would be the uncertainty
as to the correctness of the date of the letter.
Seeing that so many of Chopin’s letters have
been published with wrong dates, why not also that
of January 12? Unfortunately, we cannot in this
case prove or disprove the point by internal evidence.
There is, however, one factor we must be especially
careful not to forget in our calculations—namely,
George Sand’s habitual unconscientious inaccuracy;
but the nature of her narrative will indeed be a sufficient
warning to the reader, for nobody can read it without
at once perceiving that it is not a plain, unvarnished
recital of facts.