Nocturne Op. 15 No. 2: opening chords and form
F♯ major62 bars2/4LarghettoLevel 6 of 85-page PDF
Form
A theme, played twiceB the bass slides downC doppio movimentoT D natural over the dominantA′ theme returnsCoda F♯ held
Bars 1–8 in F♯ major
Sections
A (1–16): the theme
Bars 1–4 alternate V⁷ and I. Bar 5 reaches G♯ minor (ii) through its own dominant D♯⁷, and bar 11's iiø⁷ (G♯, B, D, F♯) brings in D natural from F♯ minor.
B (17–24): the bass slides down
Chopin's bass falls by half step, C♯, C, B, A♯, under F♯ minor, D⁷, B⁷ and A♯, and that A♯ is the dominant of a D♯ minor chord that never arrives.
C (25–38): doppio movimento
At double speed Chopin's bass holds C♯ under V⁷ and diminished sevenths, then holds D under E⁷, ♭VII⁷ borrowed from F♯ minor, through bars 33–38.
T (39–48): D natural over the dominant
D natural leans on C♯ over V and F♯ minor through bars 39–48, and the theme returns at bar 49.
Coda (57–62): F♯ held
Bar 57 repeats bar 8's turn from D♯ minor through B♯°⁷ onto C♯⁷, and F♯ arrives in bar 58 and holds to the end.
Study edition
Partial analysis: opening bars and a short note on each section. The full breakdown of every section is in the study edition of Nocturne in F♯ major.
Where it sits among the other twenty is in the nocturnes ranked by difficulty, the method for learning it from these chords is in how to memorize a Chopin nocturne, harmony first, and the left-hand pattern under it is measured in Chopin’s left-hand patterns, ranked by stretch.