The piece is undoubtedly ternary, as a contrasting middle section appears as a lilting major melody in sotto voce, all while keeping the same accompanying rhythmic style (although now Chopin has rounded it out into true arpeggio figures rather than the inverted style of before). As Chopin does, the melody is repeated, each time growing more ornamented and elaborate, with mordents and trills to enhance each repeated line. I am not joking here, while I have other piano pieces that I prefer, these two bars are probably some of my most memorable and most favourite I’ve ever heard. This is then preceded by a gorgeous figure in G-flat major below the sustained A-flat, leading into an unpredictable G-flat minor. The bar following the 22 tuplet, the three crotchet motif is repeated on the tonic B-flat while sliding into the relative major of D-flat. Now I am a big fan of Chopin but even for me 33 continuous tuplets complete with rubato seems a tad self-indulgent (often something I observe in the performer), however my scepticism was soon flipped as the resolutions were beautiful. Soon enough however, Chopin employs his soon-to-be trademark rhythmic freedom, as a swathe of 11 chromatic notes followed by 22 in a single bar all as tuplet quavers take over the melody. The main melody, introduced in the first few bars, begins rhythmically matched to its accompanying left hand, with a gently swaying melody. Written in a mildly unorthodox 6/4 metre and B-flat minor it is characterised by a constant arpeggiaic quaver motion in the left hand, with Chopin’s typical elegance floating above it. Heavily overshadowed by its far more famous sister composition, the second in E-flat (not unlike Franz Liszt’s Liebestraum, with the third Nocturne being the one everyone knows), it heralds some of Chopin’s delightful nuances which echo throughout many of his other compositions, not however restricted to his Nocturnes. Being the first of Chopin’s 21 Nocturnes I regretfully admit that I overlooked this one.
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