肖邦OP.48 两首夜曲,1841 年创作,同年11月出版,题献给罗拉· 龙贝尔小姐。这两首夜曲是肖邦最成熟时期的作品。
c 小调,三段体式
这首夜曲也是肖邦夜曲中结构最庞大的一首。肖邦在马约卡岛生的病有加重的迹象,为了生活、教学、演奏不得不继续维持。
升f 小调,三段体式
这首夜曲虽不及前一首的成就,却体现了肖邦的风格。据说,此曲具有的挽歌情绪,曾使尼克斯落泪称赞说:有着令人不禁落泪的甜美。
The Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1 is initially marked lento and is in 4/4 meter. In general, the scheme of the music is ternary form and follows A-B-A’.
The piece becomes poco più lento at measure 25 and enters its middle section, which is a chorale in C major. Later, it moves to doppio movimento agitato at measure 49 and features fortissimo octave passages and double octave arpeggios. Finally, the piece ends with a reprise of the initial melody with extremely fast chordal accompanimentThe piece is a total of 77 measures long.
The Nocturne in C minor has been categorized as one of Chopin’s greatest emotional achievements. Theodor Kullak said of the piece, “the design and poetic contents of this nocturne make it the most important one that Chopin created; the chief subject is a masterly expression of a great powerful grief.” Jan Kleczyński, Sr. calls the nocturne “broad and most imposing with its powerful intermediate movement, a thorough departure from the nocturne style.” Some musical critics, including Charles Willeby and Frederick Niecks, do not think the piece deserves its fame and position; though James Huneker agrees with this assessment, he notes that the nocturne is still “the noblest nocturne of them all.”[9] James Friskin found the music to have “the most imposing instrumental effect of any of the nocturnes,” calling the crescendo and octaves “almost Lisztian.”
Jim Samson notes that the nocturne intensifies “not through ornamentation, but through a new textural background.” Kleczyński commented that the middle section “is the tale of a still greater grief told in an agitated recitando; celestial harps come to bring one ray of hope, which is powerless in its endeavor to calm the wounded soul, which…sends forth to heaven a cry of deepest anguish.”[8] The ending, according to Samson, is “in the nature of an elaborated ‘feminine ending’, articulating the reactive final beat of an amphibrach grouping.”
The Nocturne in F-sharp minor, Op 48, No. 2 is initially marked andantino and is in 4/4 meter. It switches to più lento at measure 57 and returns to the original tempo at measure 101. The piece is a total of 137 measures long.
When compared with the other parts, the middle section, più lento, is completely different—the piece modulates from minor to major (D-flat), changes its meter to 3/4 and decreases tempo. Frederick Niecks commented that the middle section “is much finer” and contains “soothing, simple chord progressions.” Chopin once noted that the middle section was like a recitative and should be played as if “a tyrant commands, and the other asks for mercy.” The recapitulation is cut short by the coda, which ends in F♯ major.