History of Chopin and the Nocturne
In 1832, Frederick Chopin released his Opus 9, dedicated to Marie Pleyel, a Beglian pianist. It was three sets of Nocturnes, which is a piece of music relating to the night. The nocturne was initially characterized and defined by John Field in 1817, but Chopin picked it up starting with this set and made it what it is today. This quote from Ludwig Rellstag just a year after this set was published:
"Where [John] Field smiles, Chopin makes a grinning grimace; where Field sighs, Chopin groans; where Field shrugs his shoulders, Chopin arches his back like a cat, where Field puts some seasoning into the food, Chopin empties a handful of cayenne pepper… In short, if one holds Field’s charming romances before a distorting, concave mirror, so that every delicate impression becomes a coarse one, one gets Chopin’s work. We implore Mr Chopin to return to nature." – Ludwig Rellstab (in Iris, A weekly periodical for ’sophisticated readers,’ Berlin August 2nd 1833).
These pieces were written when Chopin was in his 20s, a remarkable age for composing pieces that are regarded so highly even today, with the second piece even being his most famous work. This page will be exploring the three pieces of Op. 9 and musically analysing the techniques and forms Chopin used to create the pieces we all know today.
Nocturne Structure
The typical structure of a nocturne follows ABA, with a section playing first, then a middle section, and then the first section repeating again. These pieces follow this structure loosely, with some of the transitions between the sections being intertwined. The melody floats throughout the piece in the upper registers of the piano, accompanied by either slow and smooth arpeggios or small jumps in the left hand. Chopin's third piece is an exception to this, as the middle section of it contains a virtuoso section with chords in the right hand. However, this is the only time he deviates from his normal formula throughout Opus 9.