"Berceuse" was first published in Paris in 1844 by Jean-Racine Meissonnier, dedicated to Chopin's pupil Élise Gavard, and appeared in London and Leipzig the following year.

Written late in his career, the lyrical piece features complex figurations in the continuous flow of variations on a calm bass in always soft dynamics, shaping the music by texture and sonority.

[2] As the first manuscript was held by the singer Pauline Viardot, the composition may have been inspired by her little daughter, Louisette, who also spent the summer there while her mother was away giving concerts.

The theme of the "Berceuse" echos a song that Chopin may have heard in his childhood, "Już miesiąć zeszedł, psy się uśpily" (The moon now has risen, the dogs are asleep).

[2] Several variations show highly independent ornamental lines in complex rapid filigree, contrasting with the stable bass.

Sonority and texture shape the music, which the musicologist Jim Samson describes as a "sense of departure and return".

Finally, it is pulverised into some luminous dust, transformed into a volatile state of almost immaterial little passages, trills and fioriture [bars 44–46].