Nocturne in G minor, Op.15, No.3

chopin: ballade in A flat

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

Nocturne in G minor, Op.15, No.3

There is an old story that Chopin inscribed the manuscript of his early Nocturne in G minor with the words, “Après un représentation de Hamlet.” Since the manuscript is now lost, it can be neither proved nor disproved. But, certainly, it would have been most unlike him to do that – another story has it that he crossed the inscription out, declaring “Let them come to their own conclusions!” – and it doesn’t fit at all with the title Les Zéphirs applied to the three Nocturnes, Op.15, when they were published in London in 1834. In fact, it is scarcely possible to align the piece with either concept, gentle breezes or the Prince of Denmark. It is true that it is cast in an uncharacteristic binary shape – a sad Lento mazurka connected by a highly chromatic transition to a Religioso chorale in four voices – which might indicate that it has some kind of programmatic background. But, given the choice of Shakespeare’s plays to associate with the piece, one would surely choose Romeo and Juliet rather than Hamlet.