Essential Repertoire,
Piano Sheet Music Essentials: Frédéric Chopin
Chopin is best known for his incredible piano compositions. A composer of the early Romantic era, his works are frequently performed in piano competitions and recitals due to their technical difficulty and expressive nature.
In our Piano Sheet Music Essentials series, we aim to offer recommendations for some of the most popular piano pieces by a selection of celebrated composers, broken up into general difficulty level, so pianists of all ages and abilities can begin to explore the works of great classical composers. This article focuses on the work of Chopin, virtuosic piano composer of the Romantic Era.
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric Chopin was born near Warsaw in 1810. A virtuosic pianist, every one of his compositions includes the piano, and the vast majority are for piano alone. Unlike many of his contemporaries in the early Romantic era, he showed little interest in using music to express narratives inspired by Romantic art and literature. Instead, he composed in miniature rather than large scale, with an unparalleled intensity of expression, and with a focus on the evocation of moods. His compositions had a profound effect on piano technique, combining advanced technical skill with great expression.
Easy - Intermediate Pieces
The pieces listed below are suitable for beginner to early intermediate pianists. As with all sheet music, some basic music theory and an understanding of how to read and interpret sheet music is required. Including some of the easiest works by Chopin, alongside transcriptions of more difficult pieces, this collection provides accessible choices for beginners and offers an introduction into the world of Chopin.
The pieces in this collection provide an excellent introduction to the music of one of the greatest composers for the piano. Chosen for their comparative lack of technical difficulty, these pieces range across Chopin's output, with five Preludes, five Mazurkas, three Waltzes, one Nocturne and five miscellaneous works included.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Chopin's waltzes have been a source of delight for both listeners and performers through the ages, but most are quite difficult to play. This easy piano album includes the intricate melodies, harmonies, and rhythms in newly arranged form so that virtually all pianists can experience the thrill of playing Chopin waltzes at the piano.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Classic FM: Chopin Piano Favourites, inspired by the Classic FM CD of the same name, features some of Chopin's best-known pieces, beautifully tailored for easy to intermediate piano players. The greatest composer-pianist of the 19th century, Chopin was celebrated as a virtuoso of boundless musicianship who also wrote the finest collection of solo music for the piano.
Available Format: Sheet Music
This Practical Performing Edition is a well-rounded introduction to Chopin's easiest piano pieces. It contains the familiar Preludes in A Major, B minor, and E minor, three waltzes (published posthumously), six mazurkas and additional works. Ornaments are realized and fingering and pedal suggestions are provided. Biographical information and a brief discussion of each work further assist students with Chopin's style.
Available Format: Sheet Music/CD
A superb selection of more than twenty Chopin works for the pianist. With its combination of all-time favourites arranged for easy piano and several very accessible pieces presented in their original versions, this is a unique collection that makes a perfect introduction to playing the works of the great Polish composer.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Twenty-Three favourite pieces in piano arrangements. Fun-to-play, pedagogically sound arrangements include the theme from the 'Raindrop' Prelude, 'Minute' Waltz, the charming 'Lullaby', and melodic highlights from the most familiar Preludes, Mazurkas, Waltzes, Impromptus and Etudes.
Available Format: Sheet Music
This collection contains the loveliest and easiest-to-play of Chopin's pieces and dances for piano. Besides well-known works which the reader will not want to miss, there are also charming seldom-heard rarities to be discovered. This mosaic of easy miniatures can enliven piano lessons at an early stage by offering the pupil a valuable insight into the variety and richness of Chopin's music.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Passion, elegance, and melancholy! It is these qualities that make Chopin so popular with pianists around the world. A lot of Chopin's music is quite technically demanding, but thanks to the suitable fingerings of the composer, most figures are comfortable in the hands and can be easily played by advanced pianists. This collection contains Chopin's easiest piano pieces in one volume, perfect for piano lessons or enjoying at home.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Intermediate – Early Advanced Pieces
The following pieces are suitable for intermediate to early advanced pianists. Some publications will include pieces that are easier to master, and some that are much more advanced. Our selections below include popular works such as the Prélude in E minor Op. 28 No. 4, and the recognisable Raindrop Prelude, Op. 28, No. 15.
Frédéric Chopin's 24 Préludes were created successively between 1836 and 1839; it was only in the fair copy of 1839 that they were compiled as a cycle. The Préludes themselves have mutated into romantic character pieces which express a range of very different moods. The technically easier ones of these miniatures are perfect as an introduction to playing Chopin. Intended to provide both students and music lovers with an inspiring access to the tonal world of Chopin, the present edition of selected pieces has been designed accordingly.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Fifty-two newly engraved intermediate to advanced piano pieces by Chopin printed on eye-pleasing cream-colored paper.
Available Format: Sheet Music
All titles in the Edition Peters more than the score… series include written masterclasses from one of a panel of internationally renowned pianists. This edition contains writing by Daniel Grimwood.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Chopin - At The Piano
17 well-known original pieces in progressive order of difficulty with practical comments
Although Frédéric Chopin was one of the greatest piano virtuosos of his time, even pianists of moderate technical ability can enter into his Romantic, magical realm. His mastery was such that his own, unmistakeable style is tangible even in his shorter, less difficult pieces such as his mazurkas and waltzes. This selection offers a progressive introduction to the musical language of this Polish-French master.
Available Format: Sheet Music
This fine selection features the most famous masterpieces by Frederic Chopin for solo piano. An essential addition to your piano library, now supplied with a download card giving you instant online access to full performances of each piece!
Available Format: Sheet Music/Downloads
Advanced – Professional Level Pieces
Lastly, these selections are most suited for advanced to professional level musicians and contain some of the most challenging Chopin compositions. The publications below include the complete Preludes, Nocturnes, Waltzes, Impromptus, and more.
This volume includes all of Chopin's twenty-six preludes, twenty-one nocturnes and nineteen waltzes. It features a biography of the composer, notes on the individual genres, and pieces that surfaced after Joseffy's time-honoured editions were initially published.
Available Format: Sheet Music
The sixth volume to appear in the new Chopin edition is the Impromptus, edited by John Irvine. The most famous of these pieces is, of course, the so-called Fantaisie-Impromptu. Because Chopin suppressed its publication during his lifetime for some reason, this work has suffered more than most from the editorial 'free-for-all' that disfigured most Chopin publishing for at least a century after his death. In the last fifty or so years, propelled by Arthur Rubinstein's discovery of an autograph score, the situation has improved markedly, and this volume is able to reflect the very latest source scholarship, both for this and the other Impromptus.
Available Format: Sheet Music
The genesis of Chopin's Polonaise brillante, Op. 22 leads back to his youth in Warsaw and the years of his first trips as a virtuoso. Designed as a concert piece with orchestra, it takes up a special position among the polonaise compositions of Chopin. However, by tradition, the work has always been performed as an extremely effective solo piece.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Twenty-eight famous pieces including the Revolutionary Étude in C minor, Op. 10, No. 12, Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1, Raindrop Prelude in D-flat Major, Op. 28, No. 15, Minute Waltz in D-flat Major, Op. 64, No. 1, and more.
Available Format: Sheet Music
The complete Nocturnes by Frederic Chopin, edited by Herrmann Scholtz and Bronislaw von Pozniak. With thematic index and fingerings.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Hardly any cycle of piano pieces can match the magnetic attraction of Chopin’s 24 Préludes published in 1839.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Chopin revolutionized the etude but he ennobled the waltz. He spent much time on this genre throughout his life and created a wide spectrum of forms, from virtuosic showpieces (the Grandes Valses Brillantes) to deeply melancholic atmospheric pictures. This volume contains all of the waltzes that were published during Chopin’s lifetime, or posthumously.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Wiener Urtext Edition of Frédéric Chopin's Ballades for solo Piano.
Available Format: Sheet Music
The most famous and popular edition of Chopin's works prepared by I. J. Paderewski, L. Bronarski and J. Turczynski. The edition has been based primarily on Chopin's autograph manuscripts, copies approved by him and first editions. The principal aim of the Editorial Committee was to establish a text which fully reveals Chopin's thoughts and corresponds to his intentions as closely as possible.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Chopin's Mazurkas are here published as part of ABRSM's Signature Series - a collection of authoritative performing editions of standard keyboard works, prepared from original sources by leading scholars. Includes informative introductions and performance notes.
Available Format: Sheet Music
The polonaise made its first appearances in stylised dance music in the late 16th century. With his own polonaises, Chopin also declared his allegiance to his native Poland. The genre had fascinated him since his childhood, and his earliest printed work was a Polonaise which he had written at the age of seven. With their mixture of festiveness and refinement, of power and suppleness, of heroic pathos and graceful charm, they all testify to the inimitable artistry of this great composer.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Gift Ideas for Chopin Aficionados
Ellena Taylor - Sheet Music and Books Manager
