Finally find the correct balance between the hands: play the left hand softly enough to be able to make the right hand sing without using too much. Play quickly enough to be able to feel four rather than twelve beats to every bar this will help you shape the melody more naturally.Use graceful, flowing movements, and an elegantly flexible rubato, without ever losing sight of the underlying steady pulse. Practice & Performance Tips:The left hand provides the important foundation for the melody without a flowing and balanced accompaniment, it is impossible to execute the cantabile line of the right hand beautifully. You cannot do it any better!' 'You play it so beautifully,' I ventured, 'can no one else?' 'Liszt can,' said Chopin, drily, and played it to me no more.' 'Do please let me alone,' said Chopin - 'there, you have another cross, more than three I never give. I had received one, in the Nocturne next time I came, I got another. 9 - in 1842 it was in the full bloom of fashion - When Chopin was pleased with a scholar, he, with a small, well-sharpened pencil, made a cross under the composition. His pupil Wilhelm von Lenz recalls an amusing story: 'I tormented Chopin most with the famous Nocturne in E flat major, Op.

After an intense trill the calm is restored and the piece ends very quietly.īackgroundThis Nocturne is the second in a set of three written between 18, when Chopin was about twenty years old. After the last occurrence of the 'A' theme, there follows a coda which at first seems bound to end the piece in a peaceful way, but instead builds up to a great, passionate climax marked fortissimo. Throughout the whole piece, Chopin uses the same kind of bass-chord accompaniment, forming a harmonically rich and stable foundation for the fluid melody. The themes become more elaborate each time they're played, with more trills, cadenzas and quick runs.

This Nocturne is composed of two themes that are repeated in what is known as a rounded binary form, or A-A-B-A-B-A. 2 is a characteristic example of how Chopin delicately mixes ear-caressing beauty with hints of despair and melancholy. Sign up to listen & download > Ear-caressing beautyThe E flat Nocturne, op.

Nocturne in e-flat major, op. 9, no. 2