Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17 No. 4 (Small-Hand Edition)-Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric Chopin's Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17 No. 4, in a Small-Hand Edition.

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.

In the first edition, one hand has to press or hold more than an octave in 27 bars (up to 15 semitones), in the A-major middle section and in the closing bars. The mazurka rhythm, the inner voices, the ornaments and the fast runs are kept. The musical character and texture are preserved while selected hand-size barriers — the stretches beyond a comfortable octave — are redesigned.

• Required simultaneous reach in one hand: one octave or less, by the written notation

• Hand redistribution: 40 notes (marked r.h. / l.h.)

• Bass A2 played one octave higher (A3): 15 beats

• Shortened notes: 14 / short editorial pedals: 6

• Same key written in two voices, played once: 3 places

• No rolled chords added; every change is marked in the score

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.

Source: based on the first-edition encoding of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute (NIFC, CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), checked against a scan of the Breitkopf & Härtel first edition. Changes by PLAYABLE PIANO.

PLAYABLE PIANO

We don't make hard music easy.

We make it more playable for smaller hands.