Two Nocturnes, Op.55

No.1 in F minor

No.2 in E flat major

With a Nocturne like the one in E flat major, Op.55, No.2 - which is remarkable in its way as the Mazurka in C minor, Op.56, No.3 - Chopin had to exercise great discretion in pairing it up for publication (and for dedication to his Scottish pupil and admirer Jane Stirling) in 1843. He chose to link it with a piece of comparatively simple texture, short duration and, until the stormy middle section, modest keyboard requirements. Op.55, No.1, is short not because it is unambitious, however, but because of the inspired treatment of the opening section on its reprise. Far from retracing its measured steps out of F minor and back in again, it dissolves into harmonies which carry it away from its course to an early F major conclusion all the more radiant for the consequent foreshortening of the structure.

Op.55, No.2, though an essential nocturne, is not analyzable in the ternary terms which can be applied to most of the others. It is a continuous, effortlessly spontaneous development of one theme which is more beautifully and more meaningfully decorated than any of its kind. At the same time it is abundant in rhythmic and contrapuntal complexities which, having everything to do with melodic imagination and nothing to do with academic routine, is unique to Chopin at this stage in his development.