Reference · Corrections log
This course was audited against primary sources and earlier study documents. Twenty-four errors were found and fixed in the lessons; the flashcard decks have now been corrected to match; the two downloadable PDFs cannot be edited, so this page lists where they still disagree — every row below was verified by text extraction, and together they cover all the consequential errors found (not an exhaustive collation).
The four lesson pages, the syllabus page and the practice questions were checked line by line against scores, facsimiles and primary literature. The audit removed twenty-four errors. The two flashcard decks in Resources were corrected at the same time as this page was written — they are safe to drill from. The two PDFs, however, are fixed documents that predate the audit: they still teach several of the removed errors as fact. Use them for their mock-viva drills and general orientation, but treat every factual claim in them as unverified until you have checked it against your lesson pages.
Where any resource disagrees with a lesson page, a corrected flashcard, or this errata list — the resource is wrong. Where this page is silent but a PDF disagrees with your score, trust your score and your edition's own commentary.
Counts below were verified by text extraction from the deployed files (August 2026). "Study Pack" = AMusA-Piano-General-Knowledge.pdf; "Study Guide" = AMusA-General-Knowledge-Study-Guide.pdf.
| Error | The fact | Where it lingers |
|---|---|---|
| "The recapitulation is disputed: bar 69 vs bar 78" | The recapitulation begins at bar 69, uncontested. "78" comes from misreading Suurpää's three-part division of that same recapitulation (69–77 / 78–92 / 93–100) — and bar 78 is also the recapitulation bar of the finale, a second contamination source. The real open question is where the second subject begins (Larsen b26 / Brown b32 / Beghin as early as b15). | Study Guide ×3 |
| Bartók's "jewel" metaphor attributed to the 1931 essay | "The mounting of a jewel" is from the 1941 Columbia University lecture "The Relation between Contemporary Hungarian Art Music and Folk Music" (Béla Bartók Essays, ed. Suchoff, 351–52). The 1931 essay uses a different image: "an ornamental setting for the precious stone: the peasant melody" (341–42). Two jewels, two texts, ten years apart. | Study Guide ×4 |
| Prelude figuration called "bariolage" | Avoid the term here. Bariolage's defining feature is alternation with an open string, which a keyboard has not got. Say "violin string-crossing writing transferred to the keyboard". | Study Guide ×3 |
| The fugue nicknamed "the chromatic fugue" | No such established nickname exists for BWV 875. That name belongs to the separate Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, BWV 903. | Study Pack ×2 |
| Viennese fortepianos played via "knee levers" | Viennese instruments used hand stops into the 1790s; knee levers were Stein's innovation in Augsburg. Consequence for Haydn c1771: no sustain device operable while both hands play. | Study Pack ×2 · Study Guide ×3 |
| "Haydn's Appassionata" presented as received opinion | The tag is Richard Wigmore's personal coinage (his Haydn guide and a 2012 liner note); it appears in no musicological monograph. Quote it only with his name attached: "Wigmore calls it…", never "it is known as". | Study Pack ×2 · Study Guide ×3 |
| The E minor waltz "written first" | False. The A♭ major B. 21 (1827) and the B minor Op. 69 No. 2 (1829) were written earlier — they just weren't published in Chopin's lifetime (B. 21 waited until 1902 for print). "Published last" holds only within the traditional fourteen. | Study Guide ×1 |
| Bach listed as "List A", Haydn as "List B" | The swap this course spends a whole lesson on. Still printed in the Study Guide's contents and chapter headings. | Study Guide, contents & headings |
| Prelude metre given as "Common time" | It is 3/4, 61 bars; the fugue is the common-time one. | Study Pack ×1 |
| Bar 25 as entries "half a bar apart, combining direct and inverted forms" | All three statements sit inside one bar, a crotchet apart, rectus–inversus–rectus; the two half-a-bar-apart entries are both direct. | Study Guide ×4 |
| Nine-year gap explained as "contractual" | Does not survive scrutiny (Kurzböck print authorised 1774; Landon's "dead letter"); the likelier answer is Brown's — the first movement was unfinished. | Study Guide ×1 |
| Tempo as "Vivace — some sources give Allegro vivace" | No tempo marking appears in the urtexts or the 1868 first edition; Vivace enters with Kullak (1880). Neither "Allegro" nor "Allegro vivace" appears in any of ten editions checked. | Study Guide ×2 |
| Schumann's "Aristocratic from the first note to the last" | This exact sentence does not exist in Schumann; his real line — about Op. 42, not this waltz — was "aristocratic through and through". | Study Guide ×2 |
| Rubato doctrine credited to George Mathias | The "time repaid, not accumulated" attribution could not be verified; the sourced maxim is Lenz's record of Chopin's own words ("the left hand is the conductor"). | Study Guide ×2 |
| Bartók details: No. 4 "Dance from Bucsum"; No. 3 "B — Aeolian"; "original edition has no key signatures… 1971 revision adds them" | No. 4 was collected at Bistra and the title is a place name; No. 3 is not Aeolian (raised 4th plus augmented second); the 1918 first edition already prints key signatures in Nos. 3, 5 and 6. | Study Pack & Study Guide, several places |
These are already reflected everywhere on this site except the two PDFs. They are listed here because the underlying review document is not published.
Metre: the prelude is 3/4 (61 bars); the fugue is common time (27 bars) — one document had these swapped.
No "bariolage" (see above).
No "chromatic fugue" nickname (see above).
Fugue ending: a bare D with no third, in both source traditions — not edition-dependent. (It is the prelude that ends with a D major tierce de Picardie.)
Bar 25 stretto: the two entries half a bar apart are both direct; the inverted form sits between them a crotchet later — rectus–inversus–rectus within one bar.
Key plan: includes F major (III), invisible to an accidentals scan in a one-flat signature.
Invertible counterpoint: bars 2–4 ↔ 6–8 (bars 1 and 5 do not correspond); bars 30–33 = bars 1–4 up a fifth. And bar 5 is not a neutral codetta — the inversion arrives there, before the exposition ends.
List placement: Haydn is List A (large multi-movement works), Bach is List B (contrapuntal repertoire) — the lists are not periods, and the course originally had them swapped.
Recapitulation at bar 69, uncontested (see above).
The publication gap was probably not contractual: six other sonatas were authorised for print in 1774 while this one waited; Landon calls the clause "a dead letter anyway"; Brown suggests the first movement was simply unfinished.
Movement I tempo: autograph "Moderato", 1780 print and modern editions "Allegro moderato" — the difference is evidence of revision.
No knee levers in Vienna (see above); parallel stringing, no iron bracing.
No scholarly consensus prefers "empfindsamer Stil" for these works (C.P.E. Bach's influence is another matter).
"Haydn's Appassionata" = Wigmore alone (see above).
"Written first" is false (see above).
Tempo: neither urtexts nor the 1868 first edition prints any tempo marking; Vivace enters as an editorial tradition with Kullak in 1880. Neither "Allegro" nor "Allegro vivace" appears in any of ten editions checked; Chopin gave a metronome mark for none of his waltzes.
The chromatic descent is in the B section, bars 25–30 (E–D♯–D♮–C♯–C♮–B); the coda's chromatic bass rises (A–A♯–B–C♮) and its closing flourish is diatonic.
Jewel citation: 1941 Columbia lecture, not 1931 (see above).
"Gypsy Music or Hungarian Music?" was written in 1931 (Bartók died in 1945; the English printing is posthumous) — and it is a book review.
The 1918 first edition already has key signatures in Nos. 3, 5 and 6.
No. 4 was collected at Bistra, December 1910 — Bartók printed it in the score's footnote; Buciumeana means "Dance of Bucium", a place name ("Horn Dance" is a false friend). Modes: No. 3 is not Aeolian (raised fourth plus augmented second); No. 4 is A Phrygian dominant; No. 6's first tune centres on D.
About four of the seven tunes come from the Banat and Crișana, not Transylvania — which is why the original title said "from Hungary". And 4′03″ is the sum of seven per-section timings, added in the 1934 revision, absent from 1918.
The Grade 5 written requirement need not be completed before the recital (Reg 19(b)) — though the certificate waits for both. (The results wording — Award with Distinction / Award / No Award — was always correct, so it is not counted here.)
A second, deeper pass checked every quoted sentence against primary sources. Result, already applied across the lessons and both card decks:
Annotate it against section 2 above rather than working from memory — and when you find something in it that contradicts your score, bring the score to your teacher before the exam answer brings you.