Nocturne in B major, Op. 40

Program notes

About the Work

This short piece had two earlier lives before it found a permanent home. It began around 1870 as the slow movement, marked Andante religioso, of a String Quartet in E minor that Antonín Dvořák never published. A few years later he reused the music as a slow movement in his String Quintet in G major, then took it out of that work as well. Only in the early 1880s did he rework it as a piece in its own right, giving it the title Nocturne. It was published in 1883 as his Op. 40, and besides the version for string orchestra he prepared one for violin and piano and one for piano four hands.

The decade between the first idea and the finished piece had changed Dvořák’s life. In 1870 he was an unknown orchestral player in Prague. By 1883 the Slavonic Dances had carried his name abroad, and a publisher was ready to take even a nine-minute movement salvaged from an abandoned quartet. The sources disagree about where and when the orchestral version was first played, so the premiere is best left open.

What to Listen For

The Nocturne holds a single mood from beginning to end. After a brief, plain introduction, the upper strings begin a long, winding melody that moves in small steps over a gently pulsing accompaniment. Underneath it the basses hold one deep note, an F sharp, for a very long time. That held note is what gives the first part of the piece its feeling of suspense: the harmony seems to be waiting to resolve and never quite does. The main Czech reference site on the composer describes the effect as almost hypnotic.

Eventually the bass lets go, the music becomes more animated, and the texture opens out. The opening returns at the end, but the tension has gone, and the piece closes in calm.