The Style of Chopin Part I

when we listen to the music of Frederic Chopin such as this Nocturne playing now published 1832 a completely unique style of music is instantly recognizable. It seems almost as if Chopin was gifted with some form of divine power to create an entirely new style from nowhere. While Chopin the composer is an interesting topic all on his own. I feel sometimes we lack context when it comes to understanding how an artistic style was developed. Often the greatest masters are revered whilst those who cleared the path for them are all but forgotten. Chopin in my opinion does not mark the beginning of a new movement in music as most now suggest, but rather represents the apex of a certain style of composing that was slowly coming to fruition almost two decades before Chopin started composing his more serious works around 1830. In this video I will be discussing the beginning of the two decade journey, that leads us to the style of Chopin. This piece written by the Irish composer John Field is completely unique for its time instead of giving this piece a title referring to its form such as Scherzo or Rondo which was standard for the time field gives this piece the romantic and more obscure title of Nocturne. It will be the first Nocturne ever written after which Field will write another 17. It is not just important to know that Field wrote the first Nocturnes, but rather it's important to understand the unique style he employs, which was one in direct contrast to other composers of piano music at the time. His music is marked by his obsessive use of ostinato and pedal points. Ostinato refers to a continually repeating motif in a singular voice which can be either a variation or a note for note repetition of the first rendition. A pedal point refers to the continuous repetition of holding of the lowest tone throughout a passage. I will show this practically by visualizing the pedal points and ostinato in John Field's 5th Nocturne. Red being for the pedal points and Blue for the repeating Ostinato. These same two principals will later show up in Chopin's first Nocturne written in 1832 two decades after Field's first Nocturne, in fact this technique shows up everywhere in Chopin's compositions as seen here. This stylistic similarity used by Chopin albeit and a quicker tempo at times is no coincidence as Chopin held Field in very high esteem and was highly influenced by his style. This simple but effective type of voicing is one of the primary foundations of Chopin's style and although he is viewed by almost all as a better composer than John Field it is to him that Chopin owes one of his primary stylistic traits. This method of simplifying the bass into repetitive bite-sized motifs allows Chopin as it did Field to concentrate on melody, which is something I will discuss in part 2, and although Chopin's music strays often away from this type of accompaniment, it is more often than not found his most famous works and I believe it is an integral part of what we consider Chopin's style

Channel: Musica Universalis

Views: 70,693

Keywords: Nocturne Op. 9 No. 1, Nocturne, Nocturne Op. 9 no. 2, Chopin, John Field, John Field Nocturne, Nocturne no. 1 Field, Nocturne no. 5 Field, Ballade in G minor, Scherzo no. 2, Frederic Chopin, Musica Universalis, Chopin's Style, Ostinato, Video Essay, Pedal Point, Bass Clef, Chopin Bass, Music Video Essay, Classical Music, Romantic Period, Chopin's Style Part 1, Chopin Nocturne, Music Education, Education

Id: WlW9TiaUOZ0

Length: 6min 24sec (384 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 29 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/fofenry]

Part 2 will be released next Wednesday.

[u/GuineaRex]

Interesting video!

[u/manwhoel]

Great! Thanks for sharing this.

[u/_wsgeorge]

Oh wow. Thank you for this. I'm sharing this with my Classical Piano group. Also, subbed.

[u/panwakies]

You nailed it! Field was amazing