Today, I want to introduce another piano masterpiece Nocturnes composed by Chopin. One of my favorite pieces in Chopin nocturnes is Op. 72 No.1. This piece is Chopin’s first nocturne. It seems to be an introduction to the following pieces. It means more than the piece itself.

First, I want to talk about the famous composer — Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin. Chopin was born in Warsaw, which became part of Poland in 1815. He supported himself by selling his compositions and by giving piano lessons. He had already been accomplished when he was living. As a leading musician of the Romantic era, he created his unique style of music. People regarded him as a “poetic genius based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation.” When he was living, he had many admirers including the contemporaries musicians like Robert Schumann. The music he composed has been performed by many pianists today.

Undoubtedly, Chopin was a worldwide famous composer. But why do so many people like his works? I want to decode his unique music style by introducing Chopin Nocturnes. Before going into his pieces, I have to mention another composer Field. He was admired by the young Chopin. Chopin was deeply influenced by Field’s works. Though Field had a negative view of Chopin’s works when he met Chopin, Chopin still admired him and got inspiration from Field’s works throughout his life. Chopin Learned from Fields to use the song-like melody in the right hand and to play the broken chords on the left hand as the rhythm. The extensive use of the pander is also created by Field and continued in Chopin’s works. The song-like melody acts like a vocal. It helps the audience to follow the whole piece. It also determines the emotion of the piece. Broken chords in the left hand seem to be a “necessity” of Nocturne. From the classical music era, the composer starts to use the left-hand as the rhythm in the pieces because at that time pianos do not have a good pedal. However, in the Romantic era, the technology of making pianos was advanced. And the piano has a good pedal since then. So the pianists were able to play the broken chords in the left hand and had extensive use of the pedal. The use of pedal gives the audience an aura of drama. It not only helps the performers to better express the emotion from notes but also helps deliver the emotion to the audience.

Compared to Field’s Nocturnes, Chopin nocturnes have more freedom in the rhythm and structures. Many think of the “Chopin nocturne” as a mix between the form and structure of Field and the sound of Mozart, displaying a classic/romantic – influenced theme within the music.”