Nocturnes No. 4 and 15

Chopin is the undeniable master of the Nocturne for solo piano, case closed. However, one outcome of the success his works in that genre have achieved is the awareness that he was not the first to write solo-piano pieces called “Nocturne.” That honor goes to John Field, an Irish composer of Beethoven’s generation. Field was born in Dublin in 1782 into a family of professional musicians. His talent at the piano emerged very early, and following a successful debut at age nine, Field and his family relocated to London. The boy took an apprenticeship with Muzio Clementi, one of the most famous pianists, composers, and piano manufacturers in all Europe. Alongside his master, Field visited Paris, Vienna, and eventually Russia, all the while demonstrating Clementi’s marvelous new instruments. The Irishman settled in Russia, married, and lived out his life as something of a bon vivant—a favorite among the well-to-do salons, shuttling between Moscow and St. Petersburg, taking on socialites as students (including Tolstoy’s mother when she was a girl). The sixteen nocturnes were produced in such a milieu.
Symphonic nocturnes had been around since Mozart’s day, but in the form we hear them today—a character piece, melancholic or at least meditative, typically featuring a lyrical melody above arpeggiated bass—Field was the innovator. Most of his nocturnes maintain a single mood throughout and, curiously, this is the aspect that most often calls forth negative criticism. Chopin’s nocturnes are all ABA form, in which the central section is far more agitated and tonally active. Critics hail such affective contrast as a blessing on the genre. Yet it is best to remember that Field’s aesthetic goal never included the level of emotional turmoil found in Chopin. If one wants to push the matter, and however one judges their relative merits, it is actually Chopin who fails to adhere to the Nocturne design as invented by Field.
The two selections performed this evening do not exactly typify his style, and that is perhaps what marks them for our attention after almost 200 years. The Fourth Nocturne in A Major, written in 1817, is certainly one of Field’s best works. Here is the bel canto idiom in all its glory: a simple melodic outline decorated and enlivened by rapid cascades and turn figures. The piece’s ternary design is not uncommon for such instrumental songs, but the intensity of action in the central B section is atypical for Field. It shows how close the Irishman could have gotten to Chopin’s mature style had he wished. In contrast, the Fifteenth Nocturne in C Major looks back more to Beethoven (think of his Bagatelles) and the sonatina tradition, with its chordal rhythm, clear phrase shape, and diatonic harmony spiced with only the occasional passing dissonance. Published in 1836, the C-major Nocturne was first sketched around 1817 for use in an earlier piano concerto. Texturally these two nocturnes (nos. 4 and 15) could not be more different, yet their tonal structures bear a curious resemblance: no. 4 moves from A major to C major and back again, whereas no. 15 follows exactly the opposite trajectory (C-A-C).

(c) Jason Stell