The penultimate Etude, in E flat major, brings bright, harmonious sonorities, full of air and light. The piano seems to envy the harp, imitating its angelic sonorities, or perhaps a guitar accompanying a serenade. Its melody is sung by the top notes of the chords, of six and eight notes in alternation, played arpeggiando, and so broken up into successive members.Chopin did not invent this texture; it was widely known and used before him, for example in the Etudes of Moscheles. After Chopin, Claude Debussy played at repeating and varying it, also in the eleventh, penultimate etude of his collection. As the one before last, Chopin entrusted to the Etude in E flat major the role of preparing the mood for a suitable entrance of the last Etude, in C minor, which closes the cycle.Author: Mieczysław TomaszewskiA series of programmes entitled ‘Fryderyk Chopin's Complete Works’Polish Radio 2