Chapter Ten - On the Scherzando Nocturne

Summary

Edginess infects even the best definitions of the nocturne. Consider asemblematic this description from the authoritative NewGrove: “Nocturne: a piece suggesting night, usuallyquiet and meditative in character, but not invariably so.” The verbbrims with ambiguity. (Suggesting how? To whom? Why state the matter sotentatively?). The substantive phrase redundantly hedges its claims(“usually quiet and meditative …but not invariably so” [my italics]).

Such squirrelly lexicographical practice rightly encapsulates the diversityof the genre it describes. Where once the history of the genre prior toChopin strained to admit anyone other than John Field, now musicologistsgrasp the importance to Chopin’s generation of the vocal nocturne, avastly popular genre both before and after Field. The Irish composer inessence sought to craft “songs without words” in hisnocturnes. Scholars recognize the continuing influence of the still oldermultimovement nocturne for diverse instrumental ensembles. Mozart’sEine kleine Nachtmusik is the most famous example ofthis kind of nocturne. And they recognize that other composers besides Field(including such figures as August Klengel, Ignaz Moscheles, and Henri Herz)articulated visions of the piano nocturne in the generation before Chopin.In short, it comprehends a broad range of meaning around the termnocturne before Chopin began to craft his attitudestoward the genre.

This generic expansiveness tellingly frames the seemingly idiosyncraticaspects of Chopin’s Nocturne in B Major, Op. 9, no. 3. This first ofChopin’s three B-major nocturnes lies somewhat on the fringes ofcritical consciousness. It habitually garners citations for the chromaticismof its opening theme and the agitated acceleration of the tempo of itscontrasting section—to be sure, both crucial aspects of the piece andcrucial early instances of important features of Chopin’s maturestyle. But few scholars note the distinctiveness of its principal tempomarking. As table 10.1 shows, the allegretto direction inOpus 9, no. 3, represents the only instance in the nocturnes of a tempofalling outside the confines of larghetto, lento, and andante.

And Chopin further differentiated the B-Major Nocturne by modifying theallegretto tempo with the expressive adverb scherzando, anindication he would never again use in the genre (see example 10.1).