Grieg wrote many short pieces called “Lyrical Pieces”, and this is one of them, a “nocturne” – which is simply a “night song”. During 2022 I made it a goal to complete all the “Lyrical Pieces” that interest me most. There are 66 but I’ve only played around 17 of them. I lost count. At this time I am putting them together in a way that I can present all the ones I played.
Grieg was a rather unpredictable man.
This is very calm and easy to listen to, and it is very famous. It is in no way easy to pla . The biggest problem is playing a melody that is in duple time against chords in the left hand that are in triple time. As with anything else slow, if you do it right it sounds effortless and easy to listeners, so only people who actually play music like this know how difficult it is.
One moment he would write something light, “pretty” and easy to listen to, but the next he would write something so dark.
His black moods were so dark that when listening I wonder what happened. Did he lose a close friend? A family member? Was he ill? He would follow one of these dark pieces was something very peaceful, and there seems to be no pattern to it all except his moods.
There are several important ideas. The first is the main theme which happens in the beginning and returns later after a more traumatic middle section. Following the main theme is the part with two against three, and that is followed by trills that are much like birdsongs. The very turbulent middle section follows, which builds and builds and then relaxes more and more to return to the main theme again. From this point on it’s pretty much the same as the beginning except the two against three part is abruptly stopped right before the trills come back in. But this time the trills lead to a very short coda which ends the whole piece.
I am still experimenting with pictures. Although the piece is called “Nocturne”, the whole thing is also a waltz because it is clearly in the form of a waltz. The fact that Grieg used a different time signature has nothing to do with what we hear. So I used pictures of the sky for the main theme, full moon pictures for the two against three-part, night pictures of New York City for the trills and waltz pictures for the middle, more dramatic section.
This feels different, maybe due to the dissonance. It’s irregularities make it special, make it pop. This stands out from the crowd. Would look forward to playing this.
It is beautiful, and as much is it floats wondrously when played by a master, difficult as you say. I tried it last year and was not quite ready for parts of it – esp. the bird trill which is so gorgeous.