Chopin Nocturne F minor Op. 55 no. 1 - Analysis: ESCAPING FATE?

[@SonataSecrets]

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[@dhio9615]

I never really realised that the piece is all about that C note

[@LagartoChicloso]

“It is dreadful when something weighs on your mind, not to have a soul to unburden yourself to. You know what I mean. I tell my piano the things I used to tell you.” -Frédéric Chopin

[@Naorix17]

Beautiful

[@notdeadjustyet8136]

Who was he talking to in this letter?

[@djsalad5752]

That’s always how I sorta felt while listening to this song. It’s my personal favorite nocturne and I’m so glad someone was able to put how it made me feel into words

[@Ocagna]

I really like your descriptions and the illustrations you put on the sheet music. I think there very accurate! You help us enhancing our the experience of listening to a piece.

[@johnblack3288]

Thanks Henrik for your explanation. I really like the Horowitz version of Opus 55. He takes a lot, a lot of freedom in the expression of this piece. Yours is well played.

[@anthonyb2745]

Sadness and grief with moments of hope, defiant angered resistance in the piu mosso section, relenting to the melancholy and finally descending into madness in the coda.

[@thesound9888]

that part you love, i cant stop listening over and over again, i cant play it but i try changing speeds in that phrase, it's kind of falling from a mountain, sometimes rolling, sometimes floating in the air. Good job. Please explain Chopin Ballade No.1 in Gminor, it has a very painfull phrase. Thank you

[@SonataSecrets]

Exactly - that's the feeling on that place! Chopin G minor ballad is on my list for the future :)

[@diatonicdissonance]

@@SonataSecrets would love to see this more than anything !

[@SonataSecrets]

Chopin Ballade in G minor done now: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bZzJe6mmhKmWjq8

[@viktorenano3516]

Henrik F major is so sweet and tender too!😊

[@BalancedEarth]

Underappreciated analysis! Love it

[@topherhenny5268]

That is such a great way to describe this piece, I wasn't thinking about it today and had the same perception, it's about fate.

[@Yaimdan]

Loved learning this piece a few years ago. I've since gotten rusty but have began working on it again. Such a lovely comforting melody.

[@jessemccree9171]

Wonderful interpretation! I think the end of this piece is similar to the end of Fantasy op.49, they are both in f minor.

[@SonataSecrets]

You're right, the endings are very similar!

[@Lagrimoso]

i heard those last two chords before the appregiated f major chords like ballade no 4 too

[@angreagach]

The Fantasy starts in F minor and ends in Ab major. This Nocturne begins in F minor and ends in F major. The mood is indeed similar, though.

[@margarethansen7480]

Thanks you very much, excelent video, as always! Beautiful performance!!

[@finnianreilly1831]

This nocturne was used at a critical juncture in the story of the Cyberpunk 2077 video game, and it is very interesting that Henrik links it with the idea of "Escaping Fate", because that is, in a sense, what the protaganist V is trying to do. V visits a character, Hanako Arasaka, (who is playing the nocturne) to beg a favor that might help V escape a death sentence, but in the end V cannot escape his/her fate. Not surprisingly, the game is made in Poland :-) kzbin.info/www/bejne/p5Wtcp2faKycg9E

[@Eric59541]

Many thanks Henrik. Great video and super playing. (AGAIN).

[@caterscarrots3407]

I hear characters to certain keys when I am composing a piece. For me, F minor is like "The Key of Death" if you will. I hear this unrelievable, funerial sadness to it with the bass clef, even if it is just 1 octave below middle C, and the sadness of the bass clef transfers over to the treble clef notes. I can get a similarly sad feeling out of C minor, but for me at least, it requires most of the notes to be in the bass clef if I am in C minor and aiming for that level of sadness. I definitely hear that deathly melancholy in this nocturne.

[@amjan]

That C note in the bass is one of the most evil, sinister, ominous notes in all of music history. And I'm a death metal fan who loves Schoenberg as well.

[@jameycollins725]

I've been working on this for over a year now and still need lots of practice!

[@mcoldewey]

Great analysis as always. One thing I've noticed is that at the piu mosso (m.48) the octave triplets are actually an echo of what first seems to be the "decoration" of the melody at 27 and 43. So it's not entirely new, though because of the register, the harmony and the tempo, it sounds that way. Also, the "counterpoint" section starting at 57 uses a part of this triplet figure against the descending four-note melody of the first part. Chopin transformed melodies and motives in ingenious ways. And the beauty of the last section - how he weaves the most intricate harmony and passagework into the recap of the main melody - is something that I don't think another composer could have done.

[@antoniavignera2339]

È un grande piacere seguire le Sue dettagliate spiegazioni. I miei sinceri complimenti per l’esecuzione aderente al testo.Senz’altro Chopin sarebbe stato contento.

[@evanescent3167]

Thank you for this amazing analysis and performance!

[@chilli943]

amazing analysis, my favourite Chopin piece. Always felt like there was something inquisitive about this perhaps that could tie in to the theme of being unable to escape the C note..

[@AwKeShen.]

Love this interpretation of one of my favorite Chopin Nocturnes!

[@più_lento_28_13]

one of my favourite nocturnes , thanks for this Henrik !

[@faramund9865]

I can't believe I can play almost the entirety of this song. It probably isn't as good as a practiced pianist would play it, and I probably missed some things but ye I'm happy. Will still have to learn that ending though, it's so cool! To me the song just sounds like a lifetime of up and downs, perhaps ye getting dragged back by fate into the same place (the down on which it starts). And in the end throwing himself into chaos and rebirthing. Or perhaps after the struggle he just accepted his fate and found that it wasn't so bad.

[@SonataSecrets]

Congratulations on learning it! (although the ending is the hardest part...)

[@faramund9865]

@@SonataSecrets Yeah that's why I'm a bit hesitant. Can play it up to about 14:20 of your video. But I'll get there.

[@mikeplake4775]

Thank you very much for this. Your analysis was very helpful, and you’re performance was beautiful.

[@SonataSecrets]

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it!

[@finnianreilly1831]

An excellent analysis and a beautiful interpretation with a very nice tempo, not too fast. This has inspired me to finish learning this piece which I started before but then forgot about. Thank you Henrik for sharing.

[@amt4111]

What an elegant piece

[@at8630]

Love your analysis as well as your performance.

[@JustKeysMusic]

Beautiful performance of the piece. Thank you for your analysis.

[@andjelapetrovic494]

Because of these emojis I play different 😂😍

[@angelodeangelis2506]

Wonderful

[@whoknows5538]

omg you've convinced me to learn this piece.

[@biffii5568]

This one is almsot reminiscent of a Ballade, aswell as the 48/1. Seem so comprehensive, and story driven .

[@SonataSecrets]

Absolutely.

[@gmfrunzik]

27/1, 27/2, 62/1, 62/2

[@SportsCinemaP]

loved the breakdown, exactly what i was looking for :)

[@greenvelvet]

What a beautiful piece

[@ClumsyAva200]

Thanks for the great advice !!!

[@Sulpha_Star1]

Thank you, another great explanation of one of my favorites. I've nearly finished learning this piece, just got the last bit to learn then can practice playing it at the correct speeds. Your videos help me to understand whats going on in the theory side so thanks again 🙏🏼

[@sage4nowty129]

I like this nocturne a lot!! I read that the final chords are inmitating the sound of a harp. I heard a recording by Vladamir Horowitz playing this nocturne and final chords did sound like a harp being played.

[@gregcouture8253]

The form is an extended or modified ABA. The main theme, based on a descending tetrachord can be interpreted as a lament, but instead of being positioned in the bass, it's in the right hand as a melody.

[@StephenYork-t6n]

Horowitz really does bring out depths of feeling in his performances.

[@freddymedina7011]

I love your videos keep up the good work!

[@SonataSecrets]

Thank you Freddy!

[@viktorenano3516]

Hey Henrik I cannot believe you’re such a good pianist!

[@charlesschwab1858]

Beautiful well done !

[@beatlessteve1010]

I get where you are coming from, from what I read I think Chopin wrote this piece around the time of 1842 or 3 and he dedicated it to his pupil Jane Sterling but the theme is not one of dedication,,, this is a very sad yet beautiful piece and I would think he was thinking about his future.

[@eligiorappold9413]

Hi Henrik! Your analysises are so great, they help to discover the emotions in every little detail that lie behind the technical and musical "properties" of Chopin's Nocturnes. And - as a matter of fact - you are even able to do this in such a funny way - 7:22 - there is no escape from the f minor. And the c 🤣🤣🤣 (sounds like a horror movie title). I'd love to know, if Chopin himself would laugh about this..?

[@paulaz9756]

love it, thanks for the video

[@stephenjones5852]

I really enjoy your videos and your analysis. If I may I would like to add some additional observations. In the duet section in the right hand ms 58-59 the lower melody is a statement of the theme a descending tetrachord. The same thing happens two measures later. In the section marked molto legate e Stratton the music in the right hand is a contrapuntal construct. The lower voice fills in the tetrachord F to Bb while the descending voice fills in F to C. In the second section the line continues to descend from from Bb to F. Also the lower line moves in quarter notes which creates a feeling of two against three. I wonder if that should be brought out in performance . Thank you for your videos and for your wonderful pianism.

[@ardeshirafshari1670]

When did Edward Snowden learn to play piano

[@franzkuznetsov1882]

Xddd

[@poopycarrots7906]

Lol

[@valentine4209]

Ahaha

[@nickjnickj1]

Thank you

[@AbnormaalTsi]

wonderful video! enjoyed it all the way through, think i might learn this one in the near future ;)

[@SonataSecrets]

Thanks Tsi! It's a great piece, and the first part is relatively easy. The rest needs some practice :)

[@marilynduan8261]

謝謝您！

[@asloii_1749]

3:04 you want it to resolve to F so bad but it doesnt. So heavy

[@PianoScenesMoviesandSeries]

The second melody never get's resolved, it just lingers and than goes back to it's initial theme. It sounds so sad and lonely.

[@aritina8379]

That C note = loneliness (for me)

[@jeovanilopez763]

I love this piece!!! Thank you for analyzing this!!❤️❤️ I have a question as well, why in the sheet music, there is a release the pedal sign there but it isn’t played through out the piece, and why is that?

[@greengum_p]

Very wonderful. Thank you !!!

[@ThePolo77j]

Would love to hear your take on the Brahms' Op 76/7 similarity to this piece

[@greenvelvet]

Blonde Redhead owe their career to this piece. To use throughout 'Melody of certain damaged lemons'

[@bono300vox]

ESCAPING FATE? i think i know what you're trying to say Edward Snowden

[@jessevallejo8797]

Blonde Redhead's coda for "For The Damaged" came from this nocturne.

[@hkgweigwei]

This is my next piece. Still working on Nocturne Op9#1. Hope this one won’t be a big jump in difficulty. I am technically at Intermediate level but am taking on challenges.

[@SonataSecrets]

The challenge will be the ending. The middle section should be okay, it doesn't need to be that fast really. Good luck!

[@hkgweigwei]

@@SonataSecrets got the first 2 pages down and will meet my teacher to continue the difficult sections.

[@mohammadbayazid5064]

The goatee looks good

[@tagquasar8791]

funny thing is im searching for better LH fingering of measure 57-64. Its probably so straightforward cause i cant find it anywhere but im doubting my solutions to it

[@hard-w1c]

👏👏👏

[@mayorbaboy9617]

Maybe chopin has already accepted his impending demise.

[@rayspianoworld7436]

I've heard this before!

[@michaelcee4808]

Is that Snowden?

[@sykune]

It makes sense why it's used for the theme of evil Morty.

[@jexicon618]

haha thats exactly what I thought. you can almost imagine the piece's ending on F major when he emerges on the other side of the rift.

[@teriley123]

Its interesting to hear different perspectives on the meaning of songs like this because the meaning of songs no matter what they mean to the composer can always mean something different to listeners. When I hear this song it makes me want to move my body and dance with my wife. It feels very sensual to me and at times playful. Nocturnes for me are less somber/ serious songs and more sensual and sexual. Thats what night music feels like for me. Great playing! Thanks for the video!

[@lion_cantante]

At least 50% of the viewes clicked on the video to watch Edward Snowden playing Chopin :D

[@AnaPaula-np5rq]

♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️💗😍♥️♥️👏👍🛌

[@renascitur7051]

I think rather than succeeding in cheating death but rather just accepted it.

[@msagataondine9]

The emojis are not helpful. Chopin's music speaks for itself.

[@danbuegsnerf3428]

The end is too easy. I wanna know what happened

[@smutnamezatka]

wow………

[@blacksky492]

I keep thinking you are wim winter lol

[@diadesaturno7928]

i came for the mission of Cyberpunk 2077

[@MrStevekirsch]

Anyone else here from Cyberpunk 2077?

[@shwetankkjuneja]

Cyberpunk 2077

[@jeandanieljolivald6256]

piano needs tuning ;-)

[@elisabethlililatigresse840]

Cette partition est bizarre. Est-ce l’originale ? Finalement ce pianiste manque de nuances dans son interprétation… c’est trop violent, et trop fort.

[@viennamusicacademy4648]

Thank you very much for this. Your analysis was very helpful, and you’re performance was beautiful.

[@SonataSecrets]

My pleasure!