JOHN FIELD AND THE FIRST NOCTURNE

Abstract

DURING John Field's years in London (I793-I802) a number of pieces by him for piano solo were published, some anonymously., They were mostly rondos and variations on popular tunes, and contained no hint of individual style of writing for piano that he was to develop later on. His Three Sonatas, Op. i (i 8oI ), though they have many interesting qualities, are close to idiom of his master Clementi, to whom they were dedicated. After Field left London, no new music by him appeared for six years. Then from about i8o8 a thin trickle of pieces for piano solo, piano duet, and piano and strings began to issue from publishers in Russia. With end of Napoleonic period, communication between Russia and Western capitals opened up. There was a spate of publication of music by Field between I814 and I823, led by Peters and Breitkopf & Hartel at Leipzig. This included not only first eight nocturnes, beginning with Trois Nocturnes printed by Peters in I8I4 (Hopkinson 24A, 25A, 26A),2 but first five piano concertos and other substantial works as well. It is most unlikely that this pattern of publication reflects rate of Field's creative activity. Between I802 and i8o8 he was in his early twenties, free at last from Clementi's domineering influence, and was pursuing an active career as a concert pianist. This was probably very period in which he developed his personal brand of romantic pianism. The great difficulty has been to establish dates of composition of his nocturnes and other important works. Until this has been done, it is idle to speculate about Field's priority in inventing new pianistic devices, where Dussek, Hummel, Weber and even Beethoven compete for his honours. Some writers have pointed to Field's First Piano Concerto, in E flat major, as work in which he first slhowed his idiomatic style of piano writing. Patrick Piggott in a recent book, called slow movement of this work the first of Field's pieces in what was to become his nocturne It is certainly true that work was performed by Field at London on 7 February I799, and that score, published by Breitkopf & Hartel in I8I4, is full of passages in Field's mature style. Indeed they are almost incredibly advanced