The Nocturnes, Op. 9 are a set of three nocturne

Nocturne

A nocturne is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night...

s written by Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....

 between 1830 and 1832 and dedicated to Madame Camille Pleyel. The work was published in 1833.

Nocturne in B-flat minor, Op. 9, No. 1

This nocturne has a rhythmic freedom that came to characterise Chopin’s later work. The left hand has an unbroken sequence of eighth notes

Eighth note

thumb|180px|right|Figure 1. An eighth note with stem facing up, an eighth note with stem facing down, and an eighth rest.thumb|right|180px|Figure 2. Four eighth notes beamed together....

 in simple arpeggio

Arpeggio

An arpeggio is a musical technique where notes in a chord are played or sung in sequence, one after the other, rather than ringing out simultaneously...

s throughout the entire piece, while the right hand moves with freedom in patterns of eleven, twenty, and twenty-two notes.

The opening section moves into a contrasting middle section, which flows back to the opening material in a transitional passage where the melody floats above seventeen consecutive bars of D-flat major chords. The reprise of the first section grows out of this and the nocturne concludes peacefully with a Picardy third

Picardy third

A Picardy third is a harmonic device used in European classical music.It refers to the use of a major chord of the tonic at the end of a musical section which is either modal or in a minor key...

.

Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9, No. 2

Chopin composed his popular Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9, No. 2 when he was about twenty. Like much of Chopin's music, this nocturne is tinged with melancholy.

This popular nocturne is in rounded binary form (A, A, B, A, B, A) with coda

Coda (music)

Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...

, C. The A and B sections become increasingly ornamented with each recurrence. The penultimate bar utilizes considerable rhythmic freedom, indicated by the instruction, senza tempo (without tempo).
Nocturne in E-flat Major opens with a legato melody, mostly played piano, containing graceful upward leaps which becomes increasingly wide as the line unfolds. This melody is heard again three times during the piece. With each repetition, it is varied by ever more elaborate decorative tones and trills. The nocturne also includes a subordinate melody, which is played with rubato.

A sonorous foundation for the melodic line is provided by the widely spaced notes in the accompaniment, connected by the damper pedal. The waltz like accompaniment gently emphasizes the 12/8 meter, 12 beats to the measure subdivided into four groups of 3 beats each.

The nocturne is reflective in mood until it suddenly becomes passionate near the end. The new concluding melody begins softly but then ascends to a high register and is played forcefully in octaves, eventually reaching the loudest part of the piece, marked fortissimo. Tension increases dramatically as the crescendo brightly moves up to the long trill. After a brilliant trill-like passage, the excitement subsides; the nocturne ends calmly.

Analysis

• John Rink "Structural momentum and closure in Chopins Nocturne Op 9 No 2" in Schenker Studies 2 (ed. Carl Schachter, Hedi Siegel) pp102-127 Cambridge University Press, 2006 ISBN 0521028329, 9780521028325.
• Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger "Nocturne op. 9/2, E flat major" in Chopin: pianist and teacher as seen by his pupils (ed. Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, Roy Howat) pp77-79 Cambridge University Press, 1989 ISBN 0521367093, 9780521367097.
• Eleanor Bailie "Nocturne No. 2 in E flat major" in Chopin: a graded practical guide (Eleanor Bailie, Issue 3 of The pianist's repertoire) pp303-306 Kahn & Averill, 1998 ISBN 1871082676, 9781871082678.

In film

• Exodus (1960) Nurse Katherine "Kitty" Fremont (Eva Marie Saint) has a discussion with Gen. Sutherland (Ralph Richardson
  Ralph Richardson
  Sir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films....
  
  ) about the fate of Jewish internees in Cyprus with a background drone of Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2.
• 127 Hours
  127 Hours
  127 Hours is a 2010 biographical adventure drama film co-written, produced and directed by Danny Boyle. The film stars James Franco as mountain climber Aron Ralston, who became trapped by a boulder in Robbers Roost, Utah in April 2003....
  
  (2010) The scene begins some years earlier in family home with Aron's younger sister rehearsing Nocturnes, Op.9, No. 2. After several days of being pinned by a boulder, Aron Ralston (James Franco
  James Franco
  James Edward Franco is an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author, painter, performance artist and instructor at New York University. He left college in order to pursue acting and started off his career by making guest appearances on television series in the 1990s...
  
  ), dehydrated, delusional, and believing he is going to die, reminisces his past to the bliss of Nocturne.
• Waking Life
  Waking Life
  Waking Life is an American animated film , directed by Richard Linklater and released in 2001. The entire film was shot using digital video and then a team of artists using computers drew stylized lines and colors over each frame.The film focuses on the nature of dreams, consciousness, and...
  
  (2001) Nocturne is played in the background of scene in the bar during various interviews (approx. 39 minutes into film)
• Rock n Rolla
  RocknRolla
  RocknRolla is a 2008 British crime film written and directed by Guy Ritchie, and starring Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Mark Strong, Toby Kebbell, Tom Hardy, Idris Elba, Karel Roden, and Thandie Newton...
  
  (2008) The nocturne is playing in the background for the scene when Gerard Butler gives the money to Thandi Newton and describes fighting off the Russian grunts.

In popular music

Muse's

Muse (band)

Muse are an English alternative rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of school friends Matthew Bellamy , Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard...

 "+Collateral Damage" is based on Nocturne in E-flat Major, using it as an additional end piano sonata to the song "United States of Eurasia

United States of Eurasia

"United States of Eurasia" is a song by English alternative rock band Muse and is featured on their fifth studio album The Resistance. The song was made available as a free digital download online on 21 July 2009 and is followed by an instrumental solo entitled "Collateral Damage", based on...

". The piece was accompanied by sounds of children laughing and jet fighters.

Nocturne in B major, Op. 9, No. 3

It is in the ternary form A-B-A. The first section is set to allegretto. The second contrasting section, Agitato in B minor, is a very dramatic one with a combined melody & counter-melody in the right hand and continuous 8th note arpeggios in the left, which requires an amount of virtuosity. The piece is full of coloratura

Coloratura

Coloratura has several meanings. The word is originally from Italian, literally meaning "coloring", and derives from the Latin word colorare . When used in English, the term specifically refers to elaborate melody, particularly in vocal music and especially in operatic singing of the 18th and...

ornaments, and ends with a wide chord in the left hand accompanied with right hand triplets in a high octave to lead to a legatissimo smorzando adagio (senza tempo).

External links

• Hear the performance of the Op. 9 No. 2 Nocturne with original cadenzas at The Chopin Project
• Free sheet music of the Nocturnes, on Cantorion.org.