The first Bagatelle for 'cello and piano progressed from D minor to B minor. This, the second Bagatelle, is set in F# minor. The 'cello opens the movement with a slow, winding descent before introducing a quiet tolling motif, moving back and forth between F# and G#. This ushers in an overlapping dialogue between the piano and the 'cello which builds to successive outbursts and climaxes before subsiding into silence and a pianissimo chord on the piano.