Op.9 No.1: The Nocturne in B flat minor emerges from silence and to silence returns. It has the form of an ample song in which a graceful melody fills the outer sections. At first it rolls along quietly, enlivened by surging waves of ornaments. An inner tension leads to a climax, to a sudden rush of appassionato expression, enclosed within a handful of bars. The Nocturne’s middle section proceeds in the relative key of D flat major. This takes us into a strange other world: a melody without ornaments, almost ascetic and strong, led in octaves sotto voce, and so softened, repeating the same phrases over and over again. In those phrases, one can detect the rhythms of a mazurka and a motif from the old song ‘Chmiel’ [Hops]. The whole thing flows along as if in a trance or in great meditation. But then a sudden change occurs: we hear sonorous music built from sequences of sixths and thirds, immediately followed by its distant echo. Next the graceful melody from the beginning returns dolcissimo, before bursting into a final flourish and dying away in ppp, though not in the key of B flat minor, but in B flat major. Chopin would employ an optimistic major-mode ending for works adhering to a minor key - a practice taken from Bach - many times in his later works. Here is how Jan Kleczyński - a pupil of Marcelina Czartoryska, herself a pupil of Chopin - couched his impressions of the Nocturne in B flat minor: ‘Yearning, peculiarly combined with an elegance of form’. And Józef Sikorski probably had this nocturne in mind when writing: ‘the listener drawn into these magical dreamlands wonders instinctively after the last notes have died away if it all was reverie or reality’. Author: Mieczysław Tomaszewski A series of programmes entitled ‘Fryderyk Chopin's Complete Works’ Source: chopin.nifc.pl/en/chopin/kompozycja/153_nocturne-in-b-flat-minor Op.9 No.2: The Nocturne in E flat major, though certainly not the most beautiful of Chopin’s nocturnes, is perhaps the most popular, particularly among young would-be pianists. Jan Kleczyński supposes that ‘this charming bagatelle did more for the popularity of Chopin than all his other works’. Although, as he asserts, ‘it is impossible to deny certain resemblances to Field’s first Nocturne, if only the key, the rhythm, and the last peculiarity […] there is a certain tinge of earnest sadness unknown to Field, which even at that time began to manifest itself.’[1] For Zdzisław Jachimecki, the Nocturne in E flat major is ‘an example of a rare sense of stylistic purity’. Chopin displays a masterful use of a single kind of wondrously subtle accompaniment throughout this work. And he derived the entire nocturne from a single theme subjected to variations, altered through the continual surges and ebbs of ethereal ornaments and figurations. Only in the conclusion of the work does he introduce a variant: a sudden eruption of expression leading to a concise apotheosis - just as suddenly broken off and stilled. Most commentators have articulated their impressions of the E flat major Nocturne in superlative terms. Jachimecki heard ‘delicate thoughts that delight us with their sweetness and charm’. Tadeusz Zieliński noted its ‘captivating tunefulness’ and ‘a remarkable fluidity to the melody’. Władysław Żeleński attempted to account for the origins of that melodiousness. Over a century ago, in 1899, he wrote: ‘Chopin was always enamoured of flowing song, and we know that Italian song was always his ideal’. Żeleński also wrote: ‘The charms of Chopin’s melody never fade, as our master coupled it to a singularly deep harmony and highly original rhythms’. In the late memoirs of the interesting and mysterious figure Wilhelm von Lenz, a pupil of Liszt (then of Chopin) and an eminent music writer (author of an important study of Beethoven), one comes across an amusing, but thought-provoking story concerning this Nocturne. Lenz recalls the times when he took lessons from Chopin. ‘I tormented Chopin most’, he relates, ‘with the famous Nocturne in E flat major, Op. 9 […] in 1842 it was in the full bloom of fashion […] When Chopin was pleased with a scholar, he, with a small, well-sharpened pencil, made a cross under the composition. I had received one, in the Nocturne (premier chevron); next time I came, I got another. I came still another time. “Do please let me alone,” said Chopin […] there, you have another cross, more than three I never give. You cannot do it any better!” “You play it so beautifully,” I ventured, “can no one else?” “Liszt can,” said Chopin, drily, and played it to me no more. He had noted in it some very important little changes for me; his notes were clean, small, and sharp’.[2] The exceptional popularity of the E flat major Nocturne has manifested itself in a striking way: through transcriptions. They have been produced in record number - dozens of them. The Nocturne’s melody is most often given to violinists, with the first transcription, during Chopin’s lifetime, made by Karol Lipiński. Author: Mieczysław Tomaszewski A series of programmes entitled ‘Fryderyk Chopin's Complete Works’ Source: chopin.nifc.pl/en/chopin/kompozycja/154_nocturne-in-e-flat-major Op.9 No.3: The Nocturne in B major, which completes opus 9, is believed to have been composed in Vienna, in 1831, a little later than the first two works in that opus. It is clearly different from the other two pieces: remarkably mature in its ‘nocturnal’ independence. Traces of Field are not easily discernible. Like the Nocturne in B flat minor, it is of ternary design, with the middle part contrasted with the outer parts in a stark, sudden way. The initial theme proceeds allegretto and has a character that is unusual for a nocturne: scherzando. Pianists do not apply that injunction too literally. It would seem that Chopin’s main intention was for the narrative to flow along smoothly. The ostensibly lively melody should be sung with ample, long breaths. This enchanting, rocking theme, at times reminiscent of a barcarolle, returns spliced with a new theme. The latter is entirely melodious, and at the same time remarkably simple, almost song-like, enhanced merely with phrase-ending figuration. The agitato that fills the middle section of the Nocturne erupts suddenly… and disappears just as abruptly. It brings music that is almost menacing and bellicose. It proceeds in the relative key of B minor, in an alla breve metre, combining the rhythms of a march or insurrectionary song with sounds in the left hand that are almost onomatopoeic. It should be repeated that the spirit of Field has entirely melted away from the music of this Nocturne. Author: Mieczysław Tomaszewski A series of programmes entitled ‘Fryderyk Chopin's Complete Works’ Source: chopin.nifc.pl/en/chopin/kompozycja/157_nocturne-in-b-major
Op.9 No.1:
The Nocturne in B flat minor emerges from silence and to silence returns. It has the form of an ample song in which a graceful melody fills the outer sections. At first it rolls along quietly, enlivened by surging waves of ornaments. An inner tension leads to a climax, to a sudden rush of appassionato expression, enclosed within a handful of bars. The Nocturne’s middle section proceeds in the relative key of D flat major. This takes us into a strange other world: a melody without ornaments, almost ascetic and strong, led in octaves sotto voce, and so softened, repeating the same phrases over and over again. In those phrases, one can detect the rhythms of a mazurka and a motif from the old song ‘Chmiel’ [Hops]. The whole thing flows along as if in a trance or in great meditation. But then a sudden change occurs: we hear sonorous music built from sequences of sixths and thirds, immediately followed by its distant echo. Next the graceful melody from the beginning returns dolcissimo, before bursting into a final flourish and dying away in ppp, though not in the key of B flat minor, but in B flat major. Chopin would employ an optimistic major-mode ending for works adhering to a minor key - a practice taken from Bach - many times in his later works.
Here is how Jan Kleczyński - a pupil of Marcelina Czartoryska, herself a pupil of Chopin - couched his impressions of the Nocturne in B flat minor: ‘Yearning, peculiarly combined with an elegance of form’. And Józef Sikorski probably had this nocturne in mind when writing: ‘the listener drawn into these magical dreamlands wonders instinctively after the last notes have died away if it all was reverie or reality’.
Author: Mieczysław Tomaszewski
A series of programmes entitled ‘Fryderyk Chopin's Complete Works’
Source: chopin.nifc.pl/en/chopin/kompozycja/153_nocturne-in-b-flat-minor
Op.9 No.2:
The Nocturne in E flat major, though certainly not the most beautiful of Chopin’s nocturnes, is perhaps the most popular, particularly among young would-be pianists. Jan Kleczyński supposes that ‘this charming bagatelle did more for the popularity of Chopin than all his other works’. Although, as he asserts, ‘it is impossible to deny certain resemblances to Field’s first Nocturne, if only the key, the rhythm, and the last peculiarity […] there is a certain tinge of earnest sadness unknown to Field, which even at that time began to manifest itself.’[1]
For Zdzisław Jachimecki, the Nocturne in E flat major is ‘an example of a rare sense of stylistic purity’. Chopin displays a masterful use of a single kind of wondrously subtle accompaniment throughout this work. And he derived the entire nocturne from a single theme subjected to variations, altered through the continual surges and ebbs of ethereal ornaments and figurations. Only in the conclusion of the work does he introduce a variant: a sudden eruption of expression leading to a concise apotheosis - just as suddenly broken off and stilled. Most commentators have articulated their impressions of the E flat major Nocturne in superlative terms. Jachimecki heard ‘delicate thoughts that delight us with their sweetness and charm’. Tadeusz Zieliński noted its ‘captivating tunefulness’ and ‘a remarkable fluidity to the melody’. Władysław Żeleński attempted to account for the origins of that melodiousness. Over a century ago, in 1899, he wrote: ‘Chopin was always enamoured of flowing song, and we know that Italian song was always his ideal’. Żeleński also wrote: ‘The charms of Chopin’s melody never fade, as our master coupled it to a singularly deep harmony and highly original rhythms’.
In the late memoirs of the interesting and mysterious figure Wilhelm von Lenz, a pupil of Liszt (then of Chopin) and an eminent music writer (author of an important study of Beethoven), one comes across an amusing, but thought-provoking story concerning this Nocturne. Lenz recalls the times when he took lessons from Chopin. ‘I tormented Chopin most’, he relates, ‘with the famous Nocturne in E flat major, Op. 9 […] in 1842 it was in the full bloom of fashion […] When Chopin was pleased with a scholar, he, with a small, well-sharpened pencil, made a cross under the composition. I had received one, in the Nocturne (premier chevron); next time I came, I got another. I came still another time. “Do please let me alone,” said Chopin […] there, you have another cross, more than three I never give. You cannot do it any better!” “You play it so beautifully,” I ventured, “can no one else?” “Liszt can,” said Chopin, drily, and played it to me no more. He had noted in it some very important little changes for me; his notes were clean, small, and sharp’.[2]
The exceptional popularity of the E flat major Nocturne has manifested itself in a striking way: through transcriptions. They have been produced in record number - dozens of them. The Nocturne’s melody is most often given to violinists, with the first transcription, during Chopin’s lifetime, made by Karol Lipiński.
Author: Mieczysław Tomaszewski
A series of programmes entitled ‘Fryderyk Chopin's Complete Works’
Source: chopin.nifc.pl/en/chopin/kompozycja/154_nocturne-in-e-flat-major
Op.9 No.3:
The Nocturne in B major, which completes opus 9, is believed to have been composed in Vienna, in 1831, a little later than the first two works in that opus. It is clearly different from the other two pieces: remarkably mature in its ‘nocturnal’ independence. Traces of Field are not easily discernible. Like the Nocturne in B flat minor, it is of ternary design, with the middle part contrasted with the outer parts in a stark, sudden way.
The initial theme proceeds allegretto and has a character that is unusual for a nocturne: scherzando. Pianists do not apply that injunction too literally. It would seem that Chopin’s main intention was for the narrative to flow along smoothly. The ostensibly lively melody should be sung with ample, long breaths.
This enchanting, rocking theme, at times reminiscent of a barcarolle, returns spliced with a new theme. The latter is entirely melodious, and at the same time remarkably simple, almost song-like, enhanced merely with phrase-ending figuration. The agitato that fills the middle section of the Nocturne erupts suddenly… and disappears just as abruptly. It brings music that is almost menacing and bellicose. It proceeds in the relative key of B minor, in an alla breve metre, combining the rhythms of a march or insurrectionary song with sounds in the left hand that are almost onomatopoeic. It should be repeated that the spirit of Field has entirely melted away from the music of this Nocturne.
Author: Mieczysław Tomaszewski
A series of programmes entitled ‘Fryderyk Chopin's Complete Works’
Source: chopin.nifc.pl/en/chopin/kompozycja/157_nocturne-in-b-major
:) TY