ショパンに代表される西洋のピアノ作品のスタイルを踏襲しつつ、そこに山田独自の日本的な歌心や間合いが反映されている点が興味深い作品です。長く伸ばされた音で、夜の静けさや空気を感じながら、次に来る音の心配をせずに、その瞬間の響きを味わって演奏する喜びがあります。13小節のアウフタクトから16小節までは人情味あふれる問答が繰り広げられるような旋律で、演奏者それぞれの感情をのせて演奏したい所です。18小節目からは、非常にロマンティックな夜の歌が奏でられます。'appassionato e doloroso'の強いメッセージのもとにロマンティックな旋律が歌われますが、強弱はメゾフォルテからピアノ。叶わない情熱的な愛の歌が、フォルテやフォルテシモで演奏されないのは、イタリアの歌とは異なる感性なのかもしれません。

Composed in July, 1916.The original title is Nachtlied (A Night Song 2), but in order to differentiate it from the work with the same title published in 1914, in the edition published by Shunju-sya, they are numbered in the chronological order.The work was premiered in November, 1916, at the concert of his piano pieces.The program note for the premiere includes a short poem titled with ‘A Night Song’.The performance of this work (not A Night Song 1) in this concert is assumed from the fact that a short poem is also attached to the other two works (Yumebayashi and Minori-no-Namida), which were also composed in 1916 and first performed in that concert, and that these three works were published together in “Les  16 Petits Poemes” in New York in 1919.

As Goto, the Author of Yamada Kósçak.Tsukuru no deha naku umu (Yamada Kósçak.Creating, not Making, Tokyo: Minerva-Shobou, 2014), pointed out, these three works are published as ‘petits poemes’, despite their title don’t include the word ‘petit poeme’, therefore the composer wrote some piano pieces as ‘petit poem’, regardless of the remark to ‘petit poem’ in their title.The composer is said to have brought music and words close each other in this musical category