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 and texture 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), measured by script on the written note lengths, one hand presses or holds more than an octave at 11 instants (right hand 1, left hand 10), with an encoded maximum span of 28 semitones. This edition has 13 numbered small-hand changes.

- Required reach (keys pressed or held at the same time): one octave or less at every instant, by the written note lengths (script measurement, not a comfort guarantee). One place needs a lift: if the bar 72 fermata is held longer than written, Bb3 and E4 must be released before the C5 starts (change 9, bracketed lift)

- Hand redistribution: changes 1–11 move notes to the other hand (marked r.h. in the score)

- Octave displacement: 1 note, bar 98, Bb3 sounds as Bb4 (bracketed 8va, change 13)

- Pedal: change 11 adds a bracketed editorial pedal from bar 89 to bar 97, which carries the left-hand A3 struck once by the right hand; change 12 leaves out the re-attack at bar 94

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

- Release candidate: no human has played this edition and no one has listened to it

- 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 (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.