Frdric Franois Chopin(22 February or 1 March 1810 17 October 1849),was aPolishcomposer andvirtuosopianist of theRomanticperiod. He is one of the leading musicians of his era, whose "poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation.Chopin grew up inWarsaw, and he completed his musical education and composed many of his works before leaving Poland at age 20.

Chopin's compositions are most for solo piano. His keyboard style is highly individual and often technically demanding; his own performances were noted for their nuance and sensitivity. Many contain elements of both Polishfolk musicand of theclassical traditionofJ. S. Bach,MozartandSchubert, the music of all of whom he admired. His style, harmony, and his association of music withPolish nationalism, were influential throughout and after the lateRomanticperiod.

The Nocturne in B flat has the form of a song in which a graceful melody fills the outer sections. At first it rolls along quietly, with surging waves of ornaments. An inner tension leads to a climax, to anappassionatoexpression, enclosed within a few bars. The middle section proceeds in the relative key of D flat major. This takes us into another world: a melody without ornaments, led in octaves, repeating the same phrases over and over again. It flows along as if in a dream or in meditation. But then a sudden change occurs: sequences of sixths and thirds, immediately followed by its distant echo. Next the graceful melody from the beginning returns, before bursting into a final flourish and dying away, in B flat major. This was also one of Chopins optimistic major-mode ending for works in a minor key, inspired by J.S. Bach.