Nocturne in E-flat major

Chopin published this at twenty-two, as the second of the Op. 9 nocturnes and the most familiar thing he wrote. A bel canto melody sits over a rocking left-hand accompaniment, restated three times with ever more elaborate decoration. The decoration carries as much of the music as the tune does. The fioriture are where the music opens up, and they have to grow out of the melody like a singer's breath.

The right hand has to carry two ideas at once, and the left has to stay even so the decoration never topples the pulse. The left-hand pattern is a guitarist's accompaniment more than a pianist's, and it should sound like one. The rubato and the ornamentation demand taste as much as technique, which lifts the piece above easy Romantic miniatures. Learn the melody first, without the ornaments, until it really sings. Learning it this way gives a player the vocal, flexible touch the rest of Chopin requires, and raises your standard without your noticing.

About this edition

Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9 No. 2. Typeset by Viktor Keil, from IMSLP[1], licensed CC BY-SA 4.0[2]. Cropped and de-skewed for display; the adapted images are distributed under the same licence.

Score source · CC BY-SA 4.0