Fryderyk Chopin's Nocturne in E minor

Today on Pandora Radio, I listened to a few classical piano composers, one of whom was Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849), a famous piano virtuoso, whose music has endured for over a century. I listened to a performance by Edward Auer of Chopin’s “Nocturne in E minor,” which is one of twenty-one that he composed.

The title of this music, meaning “nighttime” is appropriate for the feeling portrayed through the music. As a Romantic composer, Chopin exhibits expressive emotion through his piano miniatures. The sound of the piano is serene and yet passionate.

This Nocturne begins in E minor, and for most of the piece, the left hand plays broken, or, arpeggio chords. These chords sustain the meter of the music as the right hand plays constant changing rhythms. Despite the fact that the rhythm is not steady, the notes played are very legato and flow one into the next, giving the music a moving and peaceful feel.
This piano piece is very expressive insofar as the ever-changing dynamics from a very soft pianissimo to a sudden loud fortissimo gives depth to the music. The arpeggio chords are used for the basis of the modulations which bring the music into a major mode and then back again to the minor mode during an unstable passage in the music. The arpeggio chords create a ladder-like movement as the key changes swiftly. At one point, the modulations become very chromatic and highly unstable, but are then resolved once the main theme comes back.

As the Nocturne progresses, the right hand is heard playing a plethora of ornamentations in a high range on the piano. The piano gets quieter and quieter until only a few muffled notes can be heard, and this piece of music ends with one pianissimo chord in the major mode.
This expressive Nocturne of Chopin’s is a pleasant piano miniature piece to listen to, as the emotions of the composer are portrayed through the music. It can be said that Nocturnes express thoroughly the ideals behind the Romantic movement