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Free sheet music · Noctave edition

Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 1

Frédéric Chopin 1810–1849

Advanced · 8/101835C-sharp minor3 min 25 sChopin's Nocturnes
Portrait of Frédéric Chopin, in moonlight

Listen

The first 20 seconds, played by the piano of Noctave (the app's SoundFont).

The piece

It begins in a whisper: the left hand unrolls a long, wide-open broken figure while the right hand sets a short lament above it, sotto voce. The metre then shifts to three beats, the motion quickens step by step, and the tension builds to a passage marked con forza before the opening tempo returns. The final bars, Adagio, leave the minor mode behind and close in C-sharp major. This version follows the first Leipzig edition.

Most of the work lies in the left hand: it plays nearly two thirds of the notes and every leap of an octave or more found in the score, 151 of them. These arpeggios span more than the hand can cover, so treat each one as a single wrist motion pivoting on the thumb, and let the pedal hold the bass notes your fingers cannot. In the middle section, repeated notes and a gradual climb call for a carefully measured crescendo; save something for the con forza peak. Four sharps plus many accidentals become easier to read once you have identified the left-hand harmonies.

What makes it hard

Repeated notes
31 notes struck again on the same key within 0.2 seconds.
Left hand
The left hand plays 65% of the notes, up to 4.3 a second.
Accidentals
4 sharps in the key signature, and 21% of the notes altered on top of it.
Leaps
151 leaps of an octave or more in less than half a second, mostly in the left hand.

Measured on the score, repeats included, at the written tempo.

Play it in Noctave

The score, free. The version that falls in light, in Noctave: the notes come down to your keyboard at your tempo, then fade to leave you the score. Noctave is coming soon to Android: leave your address to hear when it is out.

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