Noctave
The piece
A left hand in eighth notes undulating widely in 6/4, and above it a Larghetto melody that, from the very first bars, dissolves into long groups of quick notes, written as tuplets, that do not line up with the bass’s eighth notes: that is how the first nocturne of Op. 9 opens. The central section moves to D-flat major, sotto voce, with a melody in octaves in the right hand, then the opening theme returns, and the piece ends in the major.
The octaves are all in the right hand, 134 attacks, and all in the central section: keep them as connected as you can, changing fingers on the black keys, and let the top note lead. Six notes in ten belong to the left hand, in arpeggios spanning more than an octave: let your arm follow the movement and the pedal follow each harmony. For the long right-hand groups, find the anchor points where a note falls with the bass, then distribute the rest without rushing the end of the group.