Singing it brings you into an intimate understanding of what is meant by the phrase’s length. You should actually open your mouth, and sing it as you play.

I mean that both metaphorically and literally. However, I’m not sure it makes great strides toward steering clear of a waltz feeling. For expressive reasons alone, this is a must. You can apply what we discuss to the rest of the piece.įirst, you should play the melody as if it were in four, with triplet subdivisions, or maybe in two with sextuplet subdivisions. In the meantime though, here are some useful strategies that you, as the performer, can use to make this piece sound more like a nocturne than a waltz. My position is that there’s nothing inherent in the composition that will convey the meter in spite of what the performer does with the piece. Is this matter solely in the hands of the performer?.Has Chopin baked anything into this composition that would convey the written time signature to the listener over an easily-feasible, perceived-meter alternative?.As part of this think-quest, consider two ideas: 2 is in 12/8? What will keep them from thinking that it’s in 3/4? You need to spend a solid day mulling that over before reading the rest of this post. How will the listener know that Chopin Nocturne, Op.

2: not a waltzĭate ApAuthor By Jeff Category Piano Lessons

Chopin nocturne no 2 in e flat major