Nocturne op. 9 No. 2 by Frederic Chopin

 

 

introduction

      At age 20, Fredéric Chopin composed one of his best-known nocturnes for the piano. Nocturnes were brief piano works that were inspired by the night. It was Chopin who brought them to their Romantic fruition as a single-movement character piece for the piano. When it was transcribed for other instruments, the violinists brought nocturnes to their romantic highlight. In the hands of a virtuoso violinist, the true emotions of the work come through. And, as arranged by a violinist such as Sarasate or Heifetz, it became a work of increasing sophistication, with each section becoming more and more ornamented.

      Chopin’s three Op. 9 Nocturnes were written between 1830 and 1832 and have a dedication to the French /Belgian pianist Marie Moke-Pleyel, a young virtuoso who had first played in public at age 8. Marie was engaged to Berlioz for a time in 1830 before marrying Camille Pleyel, son and heir of the Austrian/French composer and piano-maker Ignace Pleyel. She was one of the most admired pianists of the 1830s and was considered by the French critic Fétis as the height of perfection.

     The Nocturne in E flat major, Op. 9, No. 2, was written when Chopin was 20. It is in a repeating form and Chopin uses those repeats to elaborate the melodies more each time. After the repeats of the A and B melodies (A, A, B, A, B, A), always returning to the first melody, he closes the work with a coda that has a new melody, C.

    When Gaspar Cassadó took the work to the cello for this 1951 recording, we have all the advantages of the violin, but with a larger and darker sound. In the virtuoso sections, Cassadó brings a light touch and a silvery smooth flow. He’s able to do moves that cannot be done on the piano, such as the elaborate slides up and down the fretboard that appear in the more decorated versions. The extended trill in the C section shows the virtuosic potential of the cello.

music and style

    Chopin’s “Nocturne, Op. 9, No. 2” begins with a subtle, timid B-flat, leaps to the distinctive major sixth, and then launches into a beautiful, yearning melody. On the top left, Chopin writes express dolce or expressively sweet. With an andante tempo throughout the piece, the left hand keeps a steady beat, providing a backbone to the right hand’s dreamlike melody that seems to want to fly away. With growing intensity, sets of chromatic notes interweave the familiar motif, washing over the stable 3/4 rhythm with suspenseful resolve.

        As one of Chopin’s most recognizable pieces, “Nocturne” has become synonymous with tranquility. Back when it was first published in the 1800’s, the piece quickly established itself as the most pleasing song to play for guests at evening salons. In fact, it was played so incessantly that professionals stopped performing it (Lederer 2008). Even today, this neutral tune is widespread. It can be found playing in elevators, grocery stores, and on-hold answering machines. A simple search on Youtube for “Nocturne” yields nearly three million results, with various performances getting tens of millions of views. Pages of videos tout it as a study aid and relaxant (Just Instrumental Music 2015).

 

context

    The E-flat major nocturne, Op. 9, Nº. 2, was part of a group of six nocturnes written between late 1830 and 1832 and then published in 1833, not long after Chopin arrived in Paris, as his Trois nocturnes Op. 9 and Trois nocturnes Op. 15. Thereafter, Chopin published nocturnes in contrasting pairs rather than as sets of three, continuing through the Op. 62 pair from 1846. Several additional nocturnes, all of which had been written prior to the first published sets, were made available after Chopin's death in 1849. The earliest nocturne of all is believed to have been the E minor nocturne designated as Op. posth. 72.

    Because Chopin wrote and spoke relatively little of the Op. 9 and Op. 15 nocturnes while composing them, it is not really possible to say a great deal about the specific contexts out of which they emerged. We can only say that they were written during the time in which Chopin was promoting himself as a pianist and composer among the European capitals, and that their publication followed his establishment in Paris, coming shortly before the bombshell release of the Op. 10 Études, some of which would have been written concurrently with these early nocturnes.

    The first few nocturnes in particular show the strong influence of the Irish pianist/composer John Field (1782-1837). Field had invented the nocturne as a genre of piano piece--long, lyrical lines in contrasting sections, over a strumming or harp-like accompaniment pattern--and it was Chopin who eventually elevated the genre to a new level of artistic sophistication and expressive potential. But these first examples are still very much in the Field mould, and Op. 9 Nº. 2 particularly so. It is therefore somewhat ironic that it may be the most often heard of all Chopin's compositions. Its melodies are limpid and clear, its flow and form simple and unassuming, and its overall cast hardly among Chopin's most original or inspired achievements--but the tune sells itself, prodigiously well, in part thanks to its perennial use in movies and television as background music suggestive of a refined or snooty ambiance.

    As an interesting footnote, the Op. 9 set of nocturnes was dedicated to Marie Pleyel, wife of Camille Pleyel. Camille Pleyel was a pianist, publisher, and member of the influential Parisian Pleyel family of piano builders and concert promoters, and the Pleyels played a crucial role in helping Chopin to establish himself in their city. As a maiden, Marie had intended to marry the passionate, unstable Berlioz but was prevented in this aspiration by her mother. Berlioz planned an elaborate double murder of the two using stolen pistols, but thankfully never carried out his scheme.