ember, 1846. Rellstab remarked in 1833 of the
Trois Nocturnes, Op. 9, that Chopin, without borrowing directly from
Field, copied the latter's melody and manner of accompaniment. There
is some truth in this; only the word "copy" is not the correct one. The
younger received from the elder artist the first impulse to write in
this form, and naturally adopted also something of his manner. On the
whole, the similitude is rather generic than specific. Even the
contents of Op. 9 give Chopin a just claim to originality; and the Field
reminiscences which are noticeable in Nos. 1 and 2 (most strikingly in
the commencement of No. 2) of the first set of nocturnes will be looked
for in vain in the subsequent ones.

Where Field smiles [said the above-mentioned critic], Chopin
makes a grinning grimace; where Field sighs, Chopin groans;
where Field shrugs his shoulders, Chopin twists his whole
body; where Field puts some seasoning into the food, Chopin
empties a handful of Cayenne pepper...In short, if one holds
Field's charming romances before a distorting concave mirror,
so that every delicate expression becomes a coarse one, one
gets Chopin's work...We implore Mr. Chopin to return to
nature.

Now, what remains of this statement after subtracting prejudices and
narrow-mindedness? Nothing but that Chopin is more varied and passionate
than Field, and has developed to the utmost some of the means of
expression used by the latter. No. 1 (in B flat minor) of Op. 9 is
pervaded by a voluptuous dreaminess and cloying sweetness: it suggests
twilight, the stillness of night, and thoughts engendered thereby. The
tone of sentiment and the phraseology of No. 2 (in E fiat major) have
been made so common by fashionable salon composers that one cannot
help suspecting that it is not quite a natural tone--not a tone of true
feeling, but of sentimentality. The vulgar do not imitate the true
and noble, but the false and ostentatious. In this piece one breathes
drawing-room air, and ostentation of sentiment and affectation of speech
are native to that place. What, however, the imitations often lack is
present in every tone and motion of the original: eloquence, grace, and
genuine refinement.

[FOOTNOTE: Gutmann played the return of the principal subject in a way
very different from that in which it is printed, with a great deal of
ornamentation, and said that Chopin played it always in that way. Also
the cadence at the end of the no