I have to confess, that before starting to research and write Nocturne, I had been under the impression that Frederic Chopin invented that musical form.
That presented a challenge because Nocturne is set in 1820 and Chopin was born in 1810. But the more I researched, the most I found out the fascinating history of this beautiful Romantic form.
Certainly Chopin is the most successful exponent of it with 21 to his name — those beautiful dreamy melodies that truly evoke the both the intimacy and the vastness of night — and yet it was an Irishman, John Field who an lay claim to the honour.
A compilation of John Field’s 18 Nocturnes
Sadly, nowhere near as well remembered at Chopin, Field was a child prodigy who first performed professionally at the age of ten at the Rotunda Assembly Rooms in Dublin. A year later, in 1793 he was apprenticed to Muzio Clementi, an Italian-born English composer (and himself a prodigy) who later became a publisher and a manufacturer of pianos.
At this time the piano was a relatively new instrument, having first been first invented in 1709 in Padua, Italy. The piano (or pianoforte to give the instrument its full name) differed from its cousin the harpsichord thank to the ability for it to be played either softly (piano) or loudly (forte). The harpsichord could only be played at one volume.
The piano didn’t come into wide use until the latter part of the 18th century when it boomed in popularity thanks in part to the industrial revolution’s ability to make standardised parts, which made the piano both reliable and relatively affordable.
The interest in piano music then grew exponentially in the 19th century and composers and performers such as Field traveled widely throughout Europe showcasing the piano’s versatility. Field himself was a leading exponent of the sustain pedal.
Field, performed across Europe but settled in Moscow for many years where he taught and played, during which time wrote 18 nocturnes and was a heavy influence on Chopin.
Sadly, like many gifted Irishmen, alcohol became the ruin John Field where he drank through his fortune and, gravely ill with cancer, returned to England for an operation and then embarked on another gruelling European schedule.
In Italy, in 1834, he fell ill and was hospitalized for several months in Naples, where he was discovered by a Russian noble family, the Rakhmanovs. They managed to bring him back to Moscow, by way of Vienna, where he stayed with Carl Czerny and gave some concerts. Back in Moscow in September 1835, Field composed his last nocturnes before his death in January 1837, aged 54. The story goes that when Field was on his deathbed his friends brought him a priest, who asked what was his true religion, for his parents had been nominally Protestant, yet Field had been married in a Catholic ceremony. Was he a Catholic? A Protestant? Perhaps a Calvinist? No, not a Calvinist – ‘Je suis claveciste!’ (I’m a pianist) said the Irishman, joking to the last.
In honour of the true originator of Nocturnes, John Field receives mention in my gothic Regency novella, Nocturne.
Before I go, I’ll leave you with a selection of Field’s works:
