John Field

John Field (1782-1837), Irish pianist and composer, best known as the creator of the nocturne and, in his piano style and technique, as a precursor of Frédéric Chopin.

Field was born into a musical family in Dublin, but by the age of 10 he had moved to London, where he was apprenticed to the Italian pianist-composer Muzio Clementi. As payment for Clementi’s teaching, Field worked as a salesman and demonstrator at Clementi’s successful piano-factory showroom. In 1802 Clementi took his former pupil on a joint European tour, but Clementi kept all the fees himself, refusing to grant Field any of the credit for their success. Field only achieved independence and fame when, after a series of performances with Clementi in Russia in 1803, he elected to stay on after Clementi left.

He became the artistic idol of St Petersburg and Moscow society, famed—in a time of barnstorming virtuosi—for his delicate, “singing” piano sound, without a hint of showmanship for its own sake. A stream of rich pupils made him a fortune, but Field developed a serious drink problem, which eventually caused the breakdown in his relationships with both his wife and his mistress, by each of whom he had a son. After 1823, Field was often too drunk to perform in public, though his reputation ensured that he could tour to London, Paris, Switzerland, and Italy as late as the 1830s. He became ill while on tour in Naples, and died just over a year after his enforced return to Moscow.

Field’s famous invention, the genre of piano piece known as the nocturne (“night piece”), broke with tradition in that it had no fixed form; nor did it describe an external story or programme. Nocturnes were typically wistful and gently sad, with a distinctive piano texture of a languorous, ornamented melody in the right hand—perhaps derived from the bel canto singing style of Italian opera—accompanied by wide-ranging broken chords giving harmonic support in the left hand. The style was elevated to greatness by Chopin, and after him by Fauré.

Field’s works, mainly for the piano, include 17 nocturnes (the published no. 18 is not a nocturne), 7 concertos (often with a nocturne-type slow movement), 4 sonatas, several polonaises, and other works including one of the first classical treatments of Russian folk music, a set of variations for piano duet (Air Russe Varié, 1808). Field’s works were widely played throughout Europe in the first two thirds of the 19th century, but only in the late 20th century have they been rediscovered and recorded by leading pianists.