Composers › Frédéric Chopin › Programme note
Three Nocturnes, Op.15
Gerald Larner wrote 2 versions of differing length — choose one below.
No.1 in F major
No.2 in F sharp minor
No.3 in G minor
Of the earliest Nocturnes Chopin himself chose to publish - the three issued as Op.9 in 1832 - the first two have obvious parallels with the John Field prototype while the third clearly does not. Much the same applies to the next in the series, the three Nocturnes, Op.15, which were published a year later. Even in No.1 in F major, which has the most tenderly expressive of outer sections, Chopin makes a radical departure in a quicker and surprisingly fierce con fuoco middle section in F minor. No.2 in F sharp major is more conformist in the undulating left-hand accompaniment figures and in the decorative bel-canto treatment of the melodic line. But here too there is a quicker middle section in the minor which, while it is less aggressive in attitude, is equally distracting.
As for No.3 in G minor, it relates to the prototype only in its slow tempo and generally thoughtful mood. Constructed in a quite uncharacteristic binary form, it is scarcely a nocturne at all. The first section is not an aria but a melancholy mazurka and the second is a religioso chorale in modal four-part harmony beginning in D minor and ending, after a coda of trumpet calls, in G major.
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Nocturnes, Op.15/1-3/s”
No.1 in F major
No.2 in F sharp minor
No.3 in G minor
As a composer of piano nocturnes, Chopin must always have been aware, however vaguely, of the John Field prototype - which, basically, postulates an expressive and often highly decorative vocal melody in the right hand poised over a wide-spaced arpeggio accompaniment in the left. Much though he admired the Field model, however, he was far from content simply to follow it; sometimes, presumably in an effort to expand the scope of the form, he would deliberately challenge it.
Of the earliest examples Chopin himself chose to publish, the three Nocturnes, Op.9, the first two have obvious parallels with the prototype while the third clearly does not. Much the same applies to the next in the series, the three Nocturnes, Op.15, which were published a year later in 1833. Even in No.1 in F major, which has the most tenderly expressive of outer sections, Chopin makes a radical departure in a quicker and surprisingly fierce con fuoco middle section in F minor. No.2 in F sharp major is more conformist in the undulating left-hand accompaniment figures and - though it is far more elaborately detailed than anything Field achieved in this respect - in the decorative bel-canto treatment of the melodic line. But here too there is a quicker middle section in the minor which, while it is less aggressive in attitude, is equally distracting by virtue of the intricately worked texture in the right-hand part and the rhythmic syncopations in the left.
As for No.3 in G minor, it relates to the prototype only in its slow tempo and generally thoughtful mood. Constructed in a quite uncharacteristic binary form, it is scarcely a nocturne at all. The first section is not an aria but a melancholy mazurka and the second, which is connected to the first by a highly chromatic transition, is a religioso chorale in modal four-part harmony beginning in D minor and ending, after a coda of trumpet calls, in G major. Unfortunately, since no autograph copy now exists, a report that Chopin inscribed the manuscript with the words “Après un représentation de Hamlet” cannot be verified - not that it would make matters much less enigmatic if it could.
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Nocturnes, Op.15/1-3”