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Those Dynamics I've Been Ignoring

I've written several times about how I've been playing my Chopin Nocturne mostly from memory for years, and have totally ceased to think seriously about all the little dynamic instructions that poor Frédéric so painstakingly wrote down throughout the piece. I've been focusing very hard on, you know, paying attention to them now. The result is that I'm playing the piece much more slowly than before ... but I also think I'm starting to play it better.

For my own reference (and for anyone who might be learning this piece and Googling "chopin noctrne op 9 no1 help what dose poco rallent mean"), I'm writing down some definitions here, in the order in which they appear in the nocturne*:

  • p - piano, soft
  • espress. - espressivo, expressive
  • smorz. - smorzando - dying away (both tone and speed)
  • legatissimo - very smooth and connected; more legato than legato
  • appassionato - with passion
  • cresc. - crescendo, gradually getting louder
  • con forza - with force
  • pp - pianissimo - very soft
  • poco rallent. - poco rallentando, "a little (poco) + "gradually getting slower" (rallentando)
  • ppp - pianississimo (I can't even pronounce this, but it means "even softer than pianissimo.")
  • poco stretto - "a little" (poco) + "quickening the speed" (stretto)
  • fz - sforzando, forced or accented
  • ff - fortissimo, very loud
  • sempre pianissimo - always very soft
  • rall. e dolciss. - rallentando e dolcissimo, "gradually getting slower" (rallentando) and "as sweet as possible" (dolcissimo)
  • dimin. - diminduendo, gradually getting softer
  • accelerando - gradually getting faster

I think I got them all. There are plenty of crescendo, decrescendo, and accent markings, but the ones above are the dynamics that were actually written in. I knew what quite a few of these meant, but I had to look up a few as well. And it was a good idea to confirm (and sometimes correct) what I thought I already knew.

*With a little help from MusicTheory.org.uk
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