In 1837 Chopin composed his famous Funeral March, which would end up serving as the third movement in his Second Piano Sonata. This Largo, from that same year, shares the same kind of sobriety and glacial pacing, though its expressive language is a bit simpler and its mood not as dark. That said, it is one of those pieces whose demeanor and expressive soul is hard to pinpoint: was Chopin expressing grief in this march-like piece, or was he attempting to portray some heroic event or mood in this solemn but regal creation? In the end, one might guess that this was another of the composer's intimate pieces meant to express whatever quirky urge inspired him at the moment.

This Largo is dominated by a solemn theme whose slow, processional gait and muscular grayness seem to straddle the worlds of grief and heroism without ever committing to either. Its sparse textures and lack of emotion suggest the composer was in an experimental mood of sorts, though there are no unusual or striking harmonies or other characteristics that might distinguish the piece. In the end, one can only conclude with reasonable certainty that Chopin had decided to write a solitary composition whose end results did not please even him. He did not seek publication of the piece in his lifetime and the work, in fact, would not surface in print until 1938.

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