Nocturnes, Op. 62 (Chopin)

Nocturne in B major, Op. 62, No. 1

One of his last works, haunting and full of mystery, the Nocturne in B major opens with what might be described as a bard's striking of the strings. His narrative will subsequently unfold, but only after a moment’s consideration. It is complemented by a second part, resembling an inner voice, sustained by the broken striking of a chord on the keys.

At first, the action proceeds gently and smoothly (dolce, legato). But the song soon turns into declamation, led by a lofty, dramatic raised voice. The middle section is filled by that sostenuto (in A flat major), but just before it Chopin briefly halts the flow of the musical narrative. Spontaneous expression is replaced by reflection, and so the music sounds differently here than one might have expected. It is not strong and explosive, as is most often the case in the middle section of a nocturne. On the contrary, it is slightly disturbed, inhibited, full of wavering and uncertainty, triggered by the play of syncopations. Chopin ends the sostenuto with extreme harmonic subtlety and delicacy. And then a surprise: the main section of the Nocturne comes again, with its opening theme altered peculiarly and in the extreme: the familiar melody is veiled by countless trills, grace notes and runs. This often happened in an Italian da capo aria, in Italian bel canto style: when the principal melody returned, the singer had not just the right, but the duty to embellish it in the most elaborate way possible, flaunting his vocal skills. In the Anglo-Saxon world, the B major Nocturne has been given the name of an exotic greenhouse flower: ‘Tuberose’. James Huneker explains why: ‘the chief tune has charm, a fruity charm’, and its return in the reprise ‘is faint with a sick, rich odor’.

Nocturne in E major, Op. 62, No. 2

Nocturne in E major, Op. 62, No. 2 is a reflective and contrapuntally engaging nocturne and is a fine example of the refinement and contrapuntal richness of Chopin's later works. The nocturne's thematic structure (ABCAB) consists of a simple and slow primary theme in E major, followed by a thoughtful and more quickly moving secondary melodic theme with climbing bass runs. This leads to the agitated, loud, and contrapuntal third section in C# minor, which has melodic interplay between the LH and the RH top 3 fingers, with the RH thumb and first fingers largely playing accompaniment. After this agitated section, Chopin returns to the first and second themes via a dissonant F major arpeggio with a D# in the bass, leading to a B in the bass, the echoing of the initial bars of the piece, and the return to E major. This return of the first melody quickly gives way to the rolling bass 2nd theme, which leads smoothly into the coda. In their reprisal, these two melodic themes are accompanied by slightly differing harmonies with modified embellishment in the right hand, as is typical of A' section of ternary Chopin nocturnes. The nocturne ends with a simple coda re-affirming solidly the key of E major, a technique which is common in other nocturnes including Op. 62 No. 2 and Op. 9 No. 2.