Chopin's Nocturne in E minor, Op. 72 No. 1 — the opus number was assigned after his death. He wrote it at seventeen and never published it; he died in 1849, and in 1855 his friend Fontana brought it out and gave it this late number in retrospect. It runs four minutes twenty in E minor, Lento at 52 to the quarter, with the right hand in threes against the left in twos and never once lining up. The full piano score is on screen, note by note.
He asked for the manuscripts to be burned, and his friend did not do it
This was written in 1827, when Chopin was seventeen — still in Warsaw, not yet in Paris, and not yet the composer of anything that made his name.
He never published it. Chopin was extremely particular about what went into print, and left a good deal of finished music alone. By contemporary accounts, he asked on his deathbed that the unpublished manuscripts be destroyed.
His friend did not do it. Julian Fontana, a schoolfellow from Warsaw who later copied music for him in Paris, sorted the papers after his death and published them from 1855, assigning the opus numbers 66 to 74 in retrospect.
So this Op. 72 is a false late number: it looks late and is one of the earliest. The same rescue produced the Fantaisie-Impromptu, Op. 66, likewise unpublished in his lifetime.
Chopin did not invent the nocturne — the Irish composer John Field wrote them first. Chopin wrote twenty-one and made the form his own.
It is on the soundtrack album of The Pianist
Eleven of the twelve tracks on the soundtrack of The Pianist (2002) are Chopin, and this nocturne is the second of them.
Three notes against two, all the way through
The left hand starts rocking in the first bar: a low note, then a chord spread above it, once a bar, like a boat on water. The right hand is in triplets, three against the left's two, so the hands never truly line up and the tune always floats. That is why it sounds soft — not because it is slow, but because the rhythm never lands flat.
After 0:56 the melody starts taking ornaments, going the long way round the same sentence; from 1:48 comes the middle, where the harmony brightens into neighbouring major, the one open stretch in the piece. From 2:42 the opening material returns with a thicker figure underneath.
From 3:35 it closes. The notes thin out and the last bar holds four — less a chord that says "finished" than a stop with the speaker still standing there.
It works well as background: four minutes twenty, never louder than f, with no sudden attack anywhere. Good at night and for reading.
Four hundred and ninety-six tuplet brackets in fifty-seven bars
Fifty-seven bars, no repeats, 4/4, E minor with a middle turning toward B major and back, one thousand one hundred and twenty-five sounding notes plus five grace notes, and a hundred and four dynamics, thirty-six hairpins and a hundred and seven pedal spans.
The number that describes this piece best is the tuplet brackets: four hundred and ninety-six — the right hand's triplets, roughly one a beat, and the rows of little 3s are exactly where the two hands stop agreeing.
Bar counts run between four and thirty-five, averaging nineteen point six — the spread comes from ornament, the bars with written-out flourishes carrying a dozen extra notes; the low bars are where the phrases breathe, and the last bar holds four.
The range is F sharp 1 to B6, a little over five octaves, and the shortest note lasts 0.067 seconds. The hundred and seven pedal spans work out at about two changes a bar, normal for a nocturne.
The difficulty is making three against two sound natural, not counted
First, three against two. Triplets over a duple left hand: counted rigidly it sounds counted. The way in is to make the left hand fully automatic and then sing over it.
Second, keep the left hand light. It is a rocking gesture, and the chord after the bass note should be lighter still; played at the same weight the whole piece sinks.
Third, do not rush the flourishes. Those runs are sung, not sprinted; better slightly late than hurried through.
Fourth, the pedal. The hundred and seven marks sit inside phrases, so the ends need clearing — the harmony moves quickly here and blur shows.
Fifth, the last bar. Four notes, and a big ritardando will turn a stop into a finale; it is a stop.
The tempo is 52 to the quarter, printed at bar 1 with Lento and taken as it stands. This edition carries a further forty-two metronome marks, the transcriber's rubato, which do not appear on the page.
We rate this 3 out of 5 — the notes are not hard; keeping the two hands independent is.
Twenty-one nocturnes, and four of them are here
Chopin wrote twenty-one nocturnes, two of them posthumous — this No. 19 in E minor, Op. 72 No. 1 and No. 20 in C sharp minor, B. 49, made in the same batch. The Complete Nocturnes playlist here also holds No. 2 in E flat, Op. 9 No. 2, No. 8 in D flat, Op. 27 No. 2 and No. 13 in C minor, Op. 48 No. 1.
