This is the second of three etudes who were written for the 'Methode des Methodes', published by the piano virtuose Ignaz Moscheles and the Belgian musicologist Francois-Joseph Fetis.

This one is a study in cross-rhythms.

James Huneker wrote: "Beautiful in a different way is the A flat study. Again the problem is a rhythmical one, and again the composer demonstrates his exhaustless invention and his power of evoking a single mood, viewing all its lovely contours and letting it melt away like dream magic. Full of gentle sprightliness and lingering sweetness is this study. Chopin has the hypnotic quality more than any composer of the century, Richard Wagner excepted."