Free MIDI file · CC-BY-SA 4.0

Nocturne Op. 72 No. 1 in E minor · piano sheet music & MIDI file

Frédéric Chopin · 1827

Chopin's posthumous E minor nocturne as a free piano MIDI: the preview plays below, and the file and sheet music PDF download in one click.

3:151100 notesIntermediateF#1 → B6pedal marks11 KB

0:00 / 0:00

Preview played right in your browser with the app's real piano (lightweight version). Inside Pianovera: full multi-layer sound, fingering display and Wait mode.

⬇ Download the MIDI (11 KB) 🎼 View the sheet music (PDF)

This is the first nocturne Chopin ever wrote: he was 17, it was 1827, and he was still a student in Warsaw. He never published it. It appeared in 1855, 6 years after his death, with a posthumous opus number, 72. Everything his great nocturnes would become is already here: a singer's melody, a rippling left hand, harmonies that shift without warning.

The left hand carries the whole piece: wide triplet arpeggios that often stretch past the octave, unbroken from the first bar to the last. Above them the right hand sings without hurry, until the music brightens and ends in E major. It makes an ideal first nocturne, shorter and less ornate than Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2, and just as lyrical.

Nocturne Op. 72 No. 1: the first notes

Right hand, in letter names (C4 = middle C): B4 G5 F#5 E5 D#5 E5 C5 B4 F#4 C5 B4 A4 G4 F#4 G4 F#4 B4 B4 F#4 C#5 D5 D5 D5 C#5… The rest scrolls in the preview above, with the fingering, and the sheet music PDF has the whole piece.

What you'll be working on

Left-hand triplets that stay supple despite the stretch
A singing melody floating above the accompaniment
Pedal changes with every harmony
The final turn to E major, without slowing too early

Playing Nocturne Op. 72 No. 1 on piano with Pianovera

Start left hand alone in Wait mode: Pianovera shows the fingering, and these arpeggios need a well-placed thumb at every change of position. When the left hand flows without you watching it, add the right at 70% speed.

Open Nocturne Op. 72 No. 1 in E minor in Pianovera: the notes fall toward an 88-key virtual piano keyboard, each hand gets its color, and Wait mode is there if you're starting out.

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Download the Nocturne Op. 72 No. 1 MIDI and sheet music

Two files are waiting for you: the Nocturne Op. 72 No. 1 piano MIDI file (11 KB, opens in Pianovera or any MIDI player) and the Nocturne Op. 72 No. 1 piano sheet music PDF (252 KB, printable). Both come from the same engraving: what you read on the score is exactly what you hear in the preview.

The work itself is in the public domain. This MIDI engraving comes from the Mutopia Project, typeset by Benjamin D. Esham, under the CC-BY-SA 4.0 license (free reuse with attribution, commercial included).

About this piece

Is Nocturne Op. 72 No. 1 hard to play on piano?

We rate it intermediate: 1100 notes over 3:15, spanning F#1 to B6, with sustain pedal marks. The first thing to work on: left-hand triplets that stay supple despite the stretch.

Where can I get the sheet music for Nocturne Op. 72 No. 1?

Right on this page: the "View the sheet music" button opens the PDF (252 KB), engraved by the Mutopia Project from the same source as the MIDI file, CC-BY-SA 4.0 license. View it, print it, keep it.

Is the Nocturne Op. 72 No. 1 MIDI file really free?

Yes. Frédéric Chopin died more than 70 years ago, so the work (1827) is public domain. This MIDI engraving is under the CC-BY-SA 4.0 license: free to use, commercially included, with credit to Benjamin D. Esham.