Chopin's Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48 No. 1 — written in 1841, the largest of his twenty-one nocturnes. The pivot of the whole piece is two words on the page: Doppio movimento, double the speed. The first two sections are one heavy, one like a whole church singing; after those two words the same melody returns packed into continuous octave chords and becomes something else entirely. Seventy-seven bars, six minutes eight. The full piano score is on screen, note by note.
Two words on the page, and everything after them changes
Written in 1841 and published in 1842 alongside its companion in F-sharp minor as Opus 48, dedicated to Laure Duperré — the daughter of a French admiral and Chopin's pupil.
It is the longest of the twenty-one nocturnes and the least like one. Field's model was a quiet salon miniature; from its middle section on, this piece leaves that range entirely, approaching the scale and volume of the ballades.
The pivot is the marking Doppio movimento — Italian for double the speed. Before it the music is slow: a heavy monologue, then a chordal chorale in C major like a whole church singing. After those two words the opening melody returns, packed into continuous octaves and chords at twice the speed, driven to the loudest point in the piece.
The same melody, the third time, means something else entirely — one person speaking earlier, everyone shouting later. Changing the sense of the same music with a tempo marking is rare in the genre.
It is on the soundtrack album of The Pianist
The 2002 film The Pianist takes its music almost entirely from Chopin — eleven of the twelve tracks on the soundtrack album — and this nocturne is the third. Drawing every piece from the pianist's own countryman is deliberate: the playing is the one thing he can still carry with him.
One person speaking, a congregation singing, and then everyone shouting
It opens with a single line, very slow, every note weighted, over a sparse accompaniment — one person speaking, long pauses between sentences.
Around one minute fifty-five it becomes something else: the key turns to C major and both hands play full chords, moving beat by beat, like a congregation rising to sing. No ornament, no filigree, only harmony walking layer by layer.
Around three minutes fifty-seven those two words take effect. The speed doubles, the opening melody returns, and now the right hand is in continuous octaves over unbroken triplets in the left; the density multiplies at once and keeps building to the loudest point in the piece.
The last bars clear suddenly and settle back on the opening bass, like someone finishing and sitting down.
Choose your moment for this as background: quiet in the first half, very loud in the second — a wide dynamic range.
Seventy-seven bars, and after bar 49 the density nearly quadruples
77 bars and 3,179 sounding notes, with 33 grace notes besides, in 4/4 and C minor, turning to C major in the middle, with no repeats.
The bar-by-bar counts mark the three sections very clearly. Up to bar 24 the count sits between 9 and 25 — the sparsest stretch, a single melodic line over a thin accompaniment.
From bar 25 it runs between 14 and 33 for the chordal chorale in C major; from bar 39 the count doubles and at bar 44 reaches 102, the fullest bar in the piece — the chorale piles itself up to its highest before the middle section arrives.
From bar 49 comes the Doppio movimento, running between 34 and 87 a bar until bar 73 drops to 32 and the last bar to 7.
The range runs from C1 to E7, 6 octaves, and the shortest note lasts 0.019 seconds.
The difficulty is making the three sections three different people
First, do not take the opening fast. Its value is in the pauses, and the silence between phrases matters as much as the notes; fill them in and it becomes an ordinary lyric piece.
Second, the chorale must be level. Both hands' chords have to land together at an even weight; one note sticking out breaks the illusion of a group singing. Personal colouring does not belong here.
Third, the octaves after Doppio movimento. Continuous octaves in the right hand over unbroken triplets in the left is a test of stamina; the method is that of any octave passage — slow, loose wrists, sections lengthened gradually. Do not start at full speed.
Fourth, plan the volume. The piece travels from its softest to its loudest; spend too much in the first half and there is nowhere to go. Hold the first two sections back.
The tempo is 55 to the quarter. Chopin left no metronome mark, so the figure has to be worked back from the instructions he did write: for the Doppio movimento to be both convincing and playable it wants 88 to 100 to the quarter; half of that gives the Poco più lento, and the opening Lento must be a little quicker again, which puts it between 52 and 56. Measured here, bar 1 runs at 55.0, bar 25 at 49.8 and bar 49 at 95.6 — ratios of 0.90 and 1.92, matching the three markings on the page.
We rate this 5 out of 5.
The second of the same set, and his other nocturnes
Opus 48 is a pair. The second, in F-sharp minor, is far quieter, with a recitative in the middle that sounds like a conversation; it has not been made yet.
This channel already has the Nocturne in E-flat, Op. 9 No. 2 — the famous one, the easiest way in — and the Nocturne in D-flat, Op. 27 No. 2, the warmest of them. Together the three show how Chopin enlarged a salon form. All three sit in the channel's complete-nocturnes playlist.
