Piano Nocturne
tagStarted c. 1812Peak 1820–1890Last big hit still active
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A Piano Nocturne is a night-piece, usually lyrical, introspective, and songlike, with a singing upper melody over broken-chord accompaniment and rubato-shaped harmonic turns. The mood is moonlit rather than sleepy: tender, melancholy, suspended, intimate, and often ornamented with bel canto-style decoration.
History
John Field established the nocturne as an independent piano genre, and Chopin transformed it into one of Romantic music's central poetic forms by combining salon lyricism, operatic vocal line, daring chromatic harmony, and emotional ambiguity. Fauré, Scriabin, Debussy, Poulenc, Barber, and later composers extended the idea, but the Chopin nocturne remains the style's gravitational center for pianists and listeners.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- Chopin: Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op. 9 No. 2 — Arthur RubinsteinSpotifyYouTube
- Chopin: Nocturne in C-sharp Minor, Op. posth. — Maria João PiresSpotifyYouTube
- Chopin: Nocturne in D-flat Major, Op. 27 No. 2 — Claudio ArrauSpotifyYouTube
- Field: Nocturne No. 5 in B-flat Major — John O'ConorSpotifyYouTube
- Fauré: Nocturne No. 6 in D-flat Major — Jean-Philippe CollardSpotifyYouTube
- Scriabin: Nocturne for the Left Hand, Op. 9 No. 2 — Vladimir HorowitzSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Grove Music Online
- Jim Samson, Chopin
- David Dubal, The Art of the Piano
- Oxford Music Online