My attempt at writing Program Notes: Frédéric Chopin

Chopin: Nocturne in b-flat, Op.9, No. 1; Nocturne in c, Op. 48, No. 1

Truly the greatest ‘tone composer’ to ever walk the earth, Frédéric Chopin (b. Mar 1810- d. Oct 1849) began his career in the womb, in the Dutchy of Warsaw, as a “child-prodigy” piano student and later became a piano teacher and composer early in life and constructed masterpieces strictly for the solo piano. Chopin must have known that to achieve the greatest amount of richness in tone, the piano composition must be performed by itself. Almost always in frail health, Chopin wrote pieces as fragile and delicate as his body. He died of pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of thirty-nine in Paris, France. He left behind the only known photograph of himself as well as a series of twenty-one nocturnes. Even though they were published without his knowledge or blessing, each one proves frail in harmony and sound and individually provide body-soul-engaging harmonic techniques.

            For later scholars, musicians, or fans of Chopin’s nocturnes, one is able to see the heightened sophistication they had to his earlier works. The performances of Nocturne in b-flat, Op.9, No. 1 and Nocturne in c, Op. 48, No. 1 deliver the rhythmic alleviation Chopin intended.

Op.9 was the first of Chopin’s nocturnes and was written in 1830 and published in June 1833. The flightiness of the arpeggios in the left hand does not break for a moment. The right hand leads with increasing note patterns. The first passage of the piece, written as larghetto, is described as calm, airy, an escape from the sickness that overtook him during the time it was written. Two and a half minutes into the first half, the middle passage takes away and delivers a contradiction. The heavy, forte chords in the right hand bring the air travel in the beginning passage down to earth. The final part of the nocturne returns to the soothing, piano scales and cordial melodies that occurred in the beginning. Op. 9 set the tone for the style of ornamentation Chopin used in his other nocturnes.

Nocturne in c, Op. 48, No. 1 (lento), written in 1841, directly mimics the horrific death of Chopin at such a tragically young age. The slower, broken-chord accompaniment, is reminiscent of the romantic era of music in which it came from. Op. 48 reflects what the Brazilian pianist Guiomar Novaes said about Chopin’s nocturnes all together. Novaes “…[found] in those nocturnes that [he] emphasize[s] reflection, nostalgia, serenity, and a certain deep feeling.” It’s dedication to a woman, Laura Duperre, mirrors the dream-like tonality of the broken chords in the left hand and the triads and intervals of the right hand. The structure of op.48 is similar to the ballades.

            Both Op.9 and Op. 48 are a part of Chopin’s stage in life where his career and personal relationships were winding down and steadying out. They were composed during an era when Chopin was experiencing physical and emotional strife. This fed his creative outlet into twenty-one careful nocturnes. The structure of many of the nocturnes travels through phases of tranquil and coolness, glides into a middle stage of chaos and tone decibels, and returns to a final passage of understandable solitude. The nocturnes are performed in a way very much reflective of Chopin’s life.