Born in Dublin in 1782 during the lifetime of both Mozart and Beethoven John Field whose father was an Anglo Irish Protestant and who like Leopold Mozart was a violinist was trained to such effect that he gave his first public piano recital in Dublin at the age of nine. The acclaim which attended that event prompted the family to move to Bath and later the same year to London where the father found a job in the orchestra pit of the Haymarket theatre.

It should be remembered that in the 18th century London was a centre of musical excellence. Handel had left his mark. Leopold Mozart took his prodigy son at about the same age as John Field's first performance to London, Haydn was a visitor where he wrote 12 London Symphonies, C.P.Bach had taken up residence and so had the male soprano/composer Rauzzini. Clementi the renowned pianist /composer/piano manufacturer was resident. The firm of Broadwood, leading piano manufacturers to this day, were at the beginning of their history.

That status was confirmed by the foundation of the Royal Philharmonic Society by Clementi and others in 1813 and the foundation of the Royal Academy of Music in 1822. The Royal Philharmonic Society was sufficiently prestigious to commission Beethoven's last three symphonies. He delivered the 8th and 9th but on his death the 10th, which there is evidence to suggest had been completed, was lost. He had remarked to a friend that it was lying in his desk so who may have taken it and for what reason we may never know. It may yet turn up in some dusty archive.

Field was apprenticed to Clementi at the cost of 100 guineas. The upside of this arrangement was that the boy got a first class musical education at the hands of one of the great piano teachers and the first composer who allegedly wrote specifically for the piano although he composed 6 undeservedly unknown symphonies as well as piano concerti which account for Field's knowledge of the orchestra.

In due course Clementi took his apprentice to Vienna as a demonstrator of his pianos. Whilst in Vienna John Field obtained instruction in counterpoint from Albrechtsberger who had performed the same service for Beethoven. He also gave concerts which were well received by audiences which in the same period were hearing Beethoven and in recent memory had been entertained by Mozart

Clementi's desire to sell pianos eventually took him to St Petersburg. John Field expanded his education in the music schools there and eventually became a piano teacher. His concert successes based upon his own compositions helped and he became a very expensive teacher for whose services people were willing to travel to St Petersburg. One who was greatly influenced by him was Frederick Chopin

The strange thing is that he is virtually unknown in Britain although he wrote 7 piano concertos and a considerable number of nocturnes, an art form which incidentally he invented, and in spite of having been acclaimed by discerning audiences in Vienna, St Petersburg, Moscow, Naples etc.
His music is extremely melodic. I would say that he is nearer to Haydn in his simplicity of articulation although he had moved on to more complex patterns. There is none of the passion which crept into Mozart's piano compositions and certainly none of the ferocity which he deplored in Franz Liszt. It is reported that when he first heard the latter perform he asked "Does he bite"

His private life was not entirely disordered although unusual for the time. He married one of his pupils in Moscow- a French Catholic Lady by whom he had a son. This lady later left to live elsewhere in Russia and teach piano taking the child with her. John Field entered into another liaison with a woman who also bore him a son who made a name for himself (not Field) as a singer. His attitude to religion seems to have been somewhat cavalier. In the course of his final illness he was asked what his religion was to which he replied "I am a clavicist"

Of course he wrote music to play himself. It was calculated to display his dexterity and his work is characterised by long tinkling runs, by changes in tempo, sudden hesitations and by similar surprises and inventions. It might be said of some of Mozart's music that there is an inevitability about it. One knows before it happens what the next note in the sequence has to be. Not so with John Field.

The outer movements of his concertos tend to be rather long. It is not unusual for them to last 19 minutes. His slow movements on the other hand, which have a leisurely dreamlike quality, are very short perhaps only 4 minutes or so. The ensemble however, thanks to his inventiveness, is never tedious varying from the dreamlike to the vivacious.

My reason for writing this little piece is that he has given me a lot of pleasure which I think it is a tragedy others do not share. I play no instrument but I have listened for over 70 years to great composers from Purcell to Shostakovich (but very little beyond) as well as the great vocal performers throughout the history of recording. I think that I know great music when I hear it. John Field's is great piano music. However you should explore his output for yourself.


Note: UK music stores particularly Townsend Records have become aware of John Field since this piece appeared. However Amazon have known him from the beginning of my interest.

Wheras in a Mozart piano concerto there is a dialogue beween two more or less equal voices in the piano and orchestra, with John Field an exuberant piano is definitely the dominant partner. Nevertheless he uses the orchestra with confidence and imagination to provide the necessary framework. On this evidence it is a pity that he has no orchestral works to his name. His fertile imagination constantly produces felicitous phrases which he is reluctant to let go which might give rise, unfairly, to a charge that he is repetitious.

An immediate successor to Mozart and a contemporary of Beethoven, although not a symphonist, not guilty of profundity and although to my knowledge he never wrote orchestral music John Field deserves, on musical merit, to stand with the giants of his day as a great pianist composer. His seven piano concertos are his monument.

He has an assured place in the history of music as the 'inventor' of the Nocturne.