Nocturne in F minor, Op. 55 No. 1 (Small-Hand Edition)-Frédéric Chopin

Chopin's Nocturne in F minor, Op. 55 No. 1, redesigned for pianists with smaller hands: the PLAYABLE PIANO Small-Hand Edition (release candidate).

This is not a simplified or beginner arrangement. The goal is to preserve the original musical character, texture, and difficulty while redesigning selected physical hand-size barriers.

The aim is to keep the first edition's notes except where a hand must stretch more than an octave; this is not a note-for-note copy. In the first edition (Breitkopf & Härtel, 1844), one hand has to press or hold more than an octave at 13 instants in 8 bars, with an encoded maximum span of 28 semitones (the measurement note in the score counts 11 of them by the struck keys alone). This edition has 13 small-hand changes.

- Required reach (keys pressed or held at the same time): one octave or less, by the written note lengths, grace notes aside (script measurement, not a comfort guarantee). One place needs a release on time: at the bar 72 fermata, Bb3 and E4 must be released before the C5 pick-up starts (bracketed mark in the score)

- Hand redistribution: 20 note records (12 key presses) played by the other hand

- Octave displacement: 1 note, bar 98, Bb3 sounds as Bb4 (bracketed 8va)

- Pedal: a bracketed pedal that is not in the first edition, added by this edition, carries the A3 of the left-hand part in bars 89-97 (struck once by the right hand); its re-attack at bar 94 is left out

- No roll or arpeggio signs added

- All 13 small-hand changes are marked in the score and explained one by one on its Editorial Changes page

- Release candidate: not yet played through by a human tester

- Included: PDF + MusicXML

Designed for pianists who can handle the musical and technical demands of the original work, but are limited by selected stretches beyond a comfortable octave.

PLAYABLE PIANO

We don't make hard music easy.

We make it more playable for smaller hands.

Source: Breitkopf & Härtel first edition (Leipzig, 1844), as encoded by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute (NIFC, CC BY 4.0). Edited by PLAYABLE PIANO.

First Editions of Fryderyk Chopin's Music

Copyright 2017-2021 The Fryderyk Chopin Institute (https://nifc.pl)

Website: https://chopinscores.org

Digital scores: https://github.com/pl-wnifc/humdrum-chopin-first-editions

License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

The edition changes the NIFC data; the Institute does not endorse it.