Chopin's Nocturne in D-flat major, Op. 27 No. 2 — the word nocturne is not Chopin's invention; the Irish composer John Field used it first, and Chopin took it over, turning a salon miniature into something substantial. The 1836 set contains two: the first in C-sharp minor, dark and low; this one in D-flat major, warm and open — deliberate opposites, issued together. Seventy-seven bars and four minutes forty, the same melody appearing three times, more elaborately ornamented at each return. The full piano score is on screen, note by note.
He took over a name somebody else had started
The word nocturne was first used by the Irish composer John Field, who wrote a set of them early in the nineteenth century: an accompaniment spread wide in the left hand, a singing line in the right, quiet, for the salon.
Chopin kept the arrangement and replaced the contents. He wrote twenty-one nocturnes; the melodies grew longer, the harmony travelled further, and the middle sections often turn on you.
This set is a deliberate pairing. Opus 27 holds two, published together in 1836 with a dedication to Countess d'Apponyi. The first is in C-sharp minor, dark and violent in the middle; this one is in D-flat major, warm throughout and almost without shadow.
It also says the same sentence three times. The main melody appears three times, each on the same frame and each more heavily ornamented — the practice of nineteenth-century opera singers, who improvised decoration when an aria came round again. Chopin wrote it into the score itself.
The left hand cups it while the right speaks more and more ornately
The left hand does one thing throughout: a bass note, then the rest of the chord spread above it, often more than an octave wide — like an open hand cupping something. It is the floor of the piece and the reason it sounds so roomy.
The right hand sings. The first time through the melody is plain, only its frame; around a minute and a half it comes back and starts adding decoration; around three minutes it returns a third time and wanders furthest.
In between, two voices sing at once, running in parallel a third or a sixth apart — the warmest texture in the piece.
Around three minutes is the one moment it really becomes agitated: sixty notes in a bar and the top pushed to F♯7, then withdrawn. From there it relaxes all the way, the final bars like lying down slowly.
This suits the night: not one sharp attack anywhere, and even the loudest point is only a slight brightening.
Seventy-seven bars, and the density marks each return
Seventy-seven bars and one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven sounding notes (fifteen of them grace notes), in 6/8 and D-flat major, with no repeats.
The bar-by-bar counts mark the three returns plainly. Up to bar 9 the count sits between twelve and twenty, the melody at its plainest; bars 13 to 16 rise to thirty-two and forty-four, the first decoration. Around bar 26 it settles near twenty-four as the melody enters a second time, and near bar 34 climbs again to thirty.
Bar 52 is the densest in the piece at sixty notes, with the top pushed to F♯7 — the single agitated moment. Afterwards the count falls back to around twenty, and bar 76 has only seven.
The range runs from G♯1 to F♯7, close to six octaves, and the shortest note lasts 0.025 seconds, all of them inside the decorative runs. When following the score, keep your eye on the frame of the melody rather than trying to catch every ornament.
The difficulty is a left hand that is both wide and light
First, the stretch in the left hand. The bass and the chord above it are often more than an octave apart, and a smaller hand should move laterally from the wrist rather than force the span. It must also stay light — it is cupping, not playing.
Second, the right-hand runs need inflection. Those fast notes are not to be played evenly; they speak by delaying and hurrying, and what the listener actually hears is when the last note of each group arrives on the main note.
Third, the three returns need levels. Plain, then more, then furthest — treat all three with the same weight and freedom and the piece has no direction.
Fourth, bar 52. It is the only high point in the piece: hold something back before it, and really withdraw after it.
The tempo is 48 to the quarter: the source prints that value at bar 1, and another clean encoding of the same piece prints a dotted-quarter 32, which converts to the same figure. The two agree.
We rate this 4 out of 5.
The first of the same set, and his other nocturnes
Opus 27 is a pair. The first, in C-sharp minor, is this one's opposite — dark, low, violent in the middle. It has not been made yet.
Chopin wrote twenty-one nocturnes; this channel has the Nocturne in E-flat, Op. 9 No. 2 and the Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48 No. 1. All three sit in the complete-nocturnes playlist.
