History

The word nocturne comes from the French word nocturne, meaning "of the night." It was first used to describe music in the 18th century. At that time, a nocturne was a musical piece played by a group of musicians in several parts, often performed at evening parties and then stored away. Sometimes, the Italian word notturno was used instead, such as in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Notturno in D, K.286, which was written for four groups of paired horns with strings, and his Serenata Notturna, K.239. During this period, a nocturne did not always describe music related to the night. Instead, it might simply mean a piece played during the evening, similar to a serenade. The main difference between a serenade and a notturno was the time they were usually performed: serenades were played around 9:00 pm, while notturnos were played closer to 11:00 pm.

In the 19th century, the nocturne became a single-movement piece, often written for a solo piano. The first pieces specifically called nocturnes were written by the Irish composer John Field, who is considered the father of the Romantic nocturne. These pieces typically feature a singing melody played over a flowing, guitar-like accompaniment. However, the most famous composer of nocturnes was Frédéric Chopin, who wrote 21 of them. Other composers who later wrote nocturnes for piano include Gabriel Fauré, Alexander Scriabin, Erik Satie (1919), Francis Poulenc (1929), and Peter Sculthorpe. In the movement titled “The Night’s Music” (“Musiques nocturnes” in French) from Out of Doors for solo piano (1926), Béla Bartók recreated sounds of nature. This piece includes quiet, strange, and unclear groups of notes, as well as sounds like birds chirping and animals calling at night, with lonely melodies in different sections. American composer Lowell Liebermann wrote eleven Nocturnes for piano, and the sixth was arranged by him as a Nocturne for Orchestra. Other notable nocturnes from the 20th century include works by Michael Glenn Williams, Samuel Barber, and Robert Helps.

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

Nocturnes are often seen as calm, emotional, and sometimes sad. However, pieces with the name nocturne have shown many different moods. For example, the second piece in Debussy’s orchestral Nocturnes, called “Fêtes,” is very lively. Parts of Karol Szymanowski’s Nocturne and Tarantella (1915) and Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji’s Symphonic Nocturne for Piano Alone (1977–78) are also lively.

Principal composers of nocturnes

• Charles-Valentin Alkan: five nocturnes 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 the easy listening style, and a song performed by Muslim Magomayev, is one of his most popular works
• Mily Balakirev: three nocturnes for solo piano
• Samuel Barber: the last of Four Songs, for voice and piano, Op. 13 (1938–40), 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 nocturnes for solo piano, 1 that is not genuine
• Carl Czerny: 17 nocturnes 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 nocturnes 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'), another for solo piano entitled Pensées ('Thoughts'), 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)
• Almeida Prado: 14 Nocturnes for solo piano (198

Popular music

• Kate Bush: One song on her 2005 album Aerial, Side 1 of Sky of Honey
• Jay Chou: One song on his 2005 album November's Chopin
• Maxence Cyrin: Ten songs on his 2014 album Nocturnes (Solo Piano)
• Eden: One song on his first EP End Credits
• Daniel Liam Glyn: An electronic and ambient concept album titled Nocturnes (2020)
• Earle Hagen (and Dick Rogers): A song titled Harlem Nocturne (1939)
• Robyn Hitchcock: Two songs, "Nocturne (Prelude)" and "Nocturne (Demise)," on his 1984 album I Often Dream of Trains
• Joe Jackson: One song on his 1987 album Will Power, and four songs on his 1994 album Night Music
• Billy Joel: One song on his 1971 album Cold Spring Harbor
• Keeno: A use of "Nocturne" in a 2013 Drum & Bass track, which became the title track for the game Forza Horizon 2
• Laufey: A song titled "Nocturne (Interlude)" on her 2023 album Bewitched
• Rush: One song on their 2002 album Vapor Trails
• Tesseract: One song on their 2013 album Altered State
• Vangelis: An album titled Nocturne: The Piano Album (2019)
• Wild Nothing: A song titled Nocturne (2012)
• Warren Zevon: One song on his 1987 album Sentimental Hygiene
• Bonobo: A song titled Noctuary