Nocturne

Musical composition inspired by the night

A nocturne is a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night.

History

The term nocturne (from French nocturne "of the night")^[1] was first applied to musical pieces in the 18th century, when it indicated an ensemble piece in several movements, normally played for an evening party and then laid aside. Sometimes it carried the Italian equivalent, notturno, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Notturno in D, K.286, written for four lightly echoing separated ensembles of paired horns with strings, and his Serenata Notturna, K. 239. At this time, the piece was not necessarily evocative of the night, but might merely be intended for performance at night, much like a serenade. The chief difference between the serenade and the notturno was the time of the evening at which they would typically be performed: the former around 9:00 pm, the latter closer to 11:00 pm.^[2]

In its form as a single-movement character piece usually written for solo piano, the nocturne was cultivated primarily in the 19th century. The first nocturnes to be written under the specific title were by the Irish composer John Field,^[3] generally viewed as the father of the Romantic nocturne that characteristically features a cantabile melody over an arpeggiated, even guitar-like accompaniment. However, the most famous exponent of the form was Frédéric Chopin, who wrote 21 of them. Later composers to write nocturnes for the piano include Gabriel Fauré, Alexander Scriabin, Erik Satie (1919), Francis Poulenc (1929), as well as Peter Sculthorpe. In the movement entitled 'The Night's Music'^[4] ('Musiques nocturnes' in French) of Out of Doors for solo piano (1926), Béla Bartók imitated the sounds of nature. It contains quiet, eerie, blurred cluster-chords and imitations of the twittering of birds and croaking of nocturnal creatures, with lonely melodies in contrasting sections. American composer Lowell Liebermann has written eleven Nocturnes for piano, of which No.6 was arranged by the composer as Nocturne for Orchestra. Other notable nocturnes from the 20th century include those from Michael Glenn Williams, Samuel Barber and Robert Helps.

Other examples of nocturnes include the one for orchestra from Felix Mendelssohn's incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream (1848), the set of three for orchestra and female choir by Claude Debussy (who also wrote one for solo piano) and the first movement of the Violin Concerto No. 1 (1948) by Dmitri Shostakovich. French composer Erik Satie composed a series of five small nocturnes. These were, however, far different from those of Field and Chopin. In 1958, Benjamin Britten wrote a Nocturne for tenor, seven obbligato instruments and strings, and the third movement of his Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (1943) is also titled "Nocturne".

Nocturnes are generally thought of as being tranquil, often expressive and lyrical, and sometimes rather gloomy, but in practice pieces with the name nocturne have conveyed a variety of moods: the second of Debussy's orchestral Nocturnes, "Fêtes", for example, is very lively, as are parts of Karol Szymanowski's Nocturne and Tarantella (1915) and Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji's Symphonic Nocturne for Piano Alone (1977–78).

Principal composers of nocturnes

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (June 2013)

Charles-Valentin Alkan: five for solo piano
Anton Stepanovich Arensky: two nocturnes for piano, each part of a set: No. 1 from Six Pieces, Op. 5 (1884); No. 3 from Twenty-four Characteristic Pieces, Op. 36 (1894); a nocturne for two pianos, no. 8 from Variations (Suite No. 3), Op. 33
Arno Babajanyan: his nocturne, a lyrical piece in easy listening genre and a song performed by Muslim Magomayev, is one of his most popular works
Mily Balakirev: 3 for solo piano
Samuel Barber: the last of Four Songs, for voice and piano, Op. 13 (1938–40) is titled "Nocturne" (to a text by Frederic Prokosch), and this song also exists in a version with orchestra; Nocturne (Homage to John Field), for piano, Op. 33 (1959)
William Basinski: Nocturnes
Arnold Bax: Nocturnes, for soprano and orchestra (1911)
Jackson Berkey: 24 Nocturnes for solo piano and Four Nocturnes for Orchestra
Georges Bizet: Premier nocturne en fa majeur Op. 2 and Nocturne in D major.
Alexander Borodin: his String Quartet No. 2 third movement Notturno contains one of his most popular melodies (1881)
Lili Boulanger: Nocturne pour violon et piano (1911)
Benjamin Britten: Nocturne, from On This Island, Op. 11
Frédéric Chopin: 21 for solo piano
Carl Czerny: 17 for solo piano
Claude Debussy: 3 for orchestra and choir, one for solo piano
Norman Dello Joio: Two Nocturnes, for piano (E major, F♯ major, 1946)
Antonin Dvořák: Nocturne in B for string orchestra (1883)
Roger Evernden: 10 Nocturnes for solo piano (2019)
Gabriel Fauré: 13 for solo piano
John Field: originator of the piano nocturne, wrote 18 of them
Irving Fine: Notturno, for strings and harp (1950–51)
Mikhail Glinka: three nocturnes: E-flat major, "La Separation" in F minor, "Le Regret" (lost)
Louis Moreau Gottschalk: four for piano solo, "Pensée poétique" (1852–53), "Solitude" (1856), "Murmures Eoliens" (1860), "La chute des feuilles" (1860)
Edvard Grieg: the fourth piece of his Lyric Pieces, Op 54 is a nocturne
Arthur Honegger: Nocturne for orchestra (1936, partly based on music from ballet Sémiramis)
Vasily Kalinnikov: Nocturne in F♯ minor, for piano (1894)
Jan Kalivoda: Six Nocturnes for Viola and Piano, op. 186
Friedrich Kalkbrenner: 4 nocturnes for solo piano
Kevin Keller: 10 nocturnes for piano and treatments
Ignace Leybach: now known only for his Fifth Nocturne
Lowell Liebermann: 11 for solo piano and Nocturne for Orchestra
Malcolm Lipkin: Eight Nocturnes for solo piano (1987-2006)
Franz Liszt: one for solo piano entitled En rêve ('In a dream' or 'While dreaming'), plus his collection of three Liebesträume (Love Dreams), a series of three Notturnos, of which no.3 is the most famous, Les cloches de Genève: Nocturne (The Bells of Geneva: Nocturne) in B major
Sergei Lyapunov: Nocturne, for solo piano, in D-flat major, op. 8
Donald Martino: Notturno, for six instrumentalists (1973, winner of the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for Music)
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy wrote the incidental music, for William Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream
Johann Kaspar Mertz: 3 Nocturnes for Guitar, opus 4.
Ernest John Moeran: Nocturne, for baritone, chorus, and orchestra (1934, text by Robert Nichols)
Andrzej Panufnik: Nocturne for orchestra (1947, rev. 1955)
Francis Poulenc: eight for solo piano (1929)
Sergei Rachmaninoff: three for solo piano (1887–1888) and one Op. 10 No. 1 from Morceaux de Salon (1894)
Ottorino Respighi: one piano nocturne as part of his Six Piano Pieces R.44 (1904)
Erik Satie: five for solo piano (1919)
Maria Schneider: Nocturne, on her album Allégresse (2000)
Clara Schumann (Clara Josephine Wieck): Nocturne in F major Op.6 No.2 from Soirées Musicales (1819–1896)
Robert Schumann: four Nachtstücke
Alexander Scriabin: four nocturnes, including one written for the left hand only (opus 9, 1894)
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji: over 30 for solo piano^[5]
Maria Agata Szymanowska: Nocturne in B-flat and Nocturne Le Murmure
Alexandre Tansman: Four Nocturnes, for piano (1952)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Nocturne (No. 4 of Six Pieces, Op. 19) (1873), and Tchaikovsky's arrangement for cello with small orchestra for Anatoly Brandukov, from a transcription for Wilhelm Fitzenhagen (1888)
Sigismond Thalberg: 7 nocturnes for piano (Opp. 16, 21, 28, 51 and 1 without op. number)
Edgard Varèse: Nocturnal, for soprano, bass, chorus, and small orchestra (text from Anaïs Nin: The House of Incest, 1961), and Nocturnal II (Nuit), for soprano, flute, oboe, clarinet, 1 or 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, percussion, and double bass (text from Anaïs Nin: The House of Incest, 1961–65)
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Three Nocturnes, for baritone, semi-chorus, and orchestra (text by Walt Whitman, 1908); "nocturne", the first of Three Poems by Walt Whitman (1925)
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Nocturne for solo piano, from Hommage à Chopin (1947)
Almeida Prado: 14 nocturnes for solo piano (1985-1991)

Popular music

Eden: One on his debut EP End Credits
Maxence Cyrin: ten on his 2014 album Nocturnes (Solo Piano)
Earle Hagen (and Dick Rogers): Harlem Nocturne (1939)
Joe Jackson: One on his 1987 album Will Power, four on his 1994 album Night Music
Billy Joel: One on his 1971 album Cold Spring Harbor
Warren Zevon: One on his 1987 album Sentimental Hygiene
Kate Bush: One on her 2005 album Aerial, Side Sky of Honey
Wild Nothing: Nocturne (2012)
Tesseract: One on their 2013 album Altered State
Jay Chou: One on his 2005 album November's Chopin
Vangelis: Nocturne: The Piano Album (2019)
Daniel Liam Glyn: Electronic / Ambient concept album Nocturnes (2020)
Laufey: Nocturne (Interlude) in her Bewitched album (2023)

Notes

^ "Nocturne Definition from the Free Merriam-webster Dictionary". Merriam-webster.com.
^ Hubert Unverricht and Cliff Eisen, "Serenade", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).
^ Brown, Maurice J.E. & Hamilton, Kenneth L. (2001). "Nocturne (i)". In Sadie, Stanley & Tyrrell, John (eds.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 978-1-56159-239-5.‎
^ Maurice J. E. Brown, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (ed. Stanley Sadie), London: Macmillan Publishers, 1980, Vol. 13: ^{[page needed]}. ISBN 0-333-23111-2 ISBN 978-0-333-23111-1 pp. 258–59.
^ Marc-André Roberge (2013-05-30). "Sorabji Resource Site: Titles of Works Grouped by Categories". Mus.ulaval.ca. Retrieved 2013-06-30.

References

Wignall, Harrison James, "Mozart and the 'Duetto Notturno' Tradition", Mozart-Jahrbuch, 1993.
Wignall, Harrison James, "Duetto notturno", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, (ed. Sadie), London, MacMillan, 2000.
Mozart's Notturno in D, K.286: Chicago Symphony Orchestra program notes Archived 2016-03-13 at the Wayback Machine