A nocturne (from the French for "nocturnal") is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Musical composition is an original piece of Music the structure of a musical piece the process of creating a new Night or nighttime is the period of Time when the Sun is below the Horizon. Historically, nocturne is a very old term applied to night Offices and, since the Middle Ages, to divisions in the canonical hour of Matins. Canonical hours are divisions of time developed by the Christian Church, serving as increments between the prescribed Prayers of the daily round Matins (also known as Orthros or Oútrenya in Eastern Churches) is the early morning or night Prayer service in the Roman Catholic

The name nocturne was first applied to pieces in the eighteenth 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 quadraphonic Notturno in D, K. Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. 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. This article is about the musical form See Serenade (disambiguation for other meanings

In its more familiar form as a single-movement character piece usually written for solo piano, the nocturne was cultivated primarily in the nineteenth century. Character piece is a literal translation of the German Charakterstück a term not very precisely defined used for a broad range of 19th century Piano The piano is a Musical instrument played by means of a keyboard that produces sound by striking steel strings with Felt covered hammers The first nocturnes to be written under the specific title were by the Irish composer John Field, generally viewed as the father of the Romantic nocturne that characteristically features a cantabile melody over an arpeggiated, even guitar-like accompaniment. Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world A composer (literally meaning 'one who puts together' is a person who creates Music, usually in the medium of notation, for Interpretation and Performance John Field (26 July 1782 &ndash 23 January 1837 was an Irish Composer and Pianist. Cantabile is a musical term meaning literally "singable" or "songlike" ( Italian) In Music, an arpeggio is a broken chord where the Notes are played or sung in Sequence, one after the other rather than Ringing out simultaneously However, the most famous exponent of the form was Frédéric Chopin, who wrote 21 of them. One of the most famous pieces of nineteenth-century salon music was the "Fifth Nocturne" of Ignace Leybach, who is now otherwise forgotten. Ignace Xavier Joseph Leybach ( 17 July 1817, Gambsheim, Alsace &ndash 23 May 1891, Toulouse) was a teacher Later composers to write nocturnes for the piano include Gabriel Fauré, Alexander Scriabin and Erik Satie (1919), as well as Peter Sculthorpe. Gabriel Urbain Fauré ( 12 May 1845 &ndash 4 November 1924) was a French Composer, Organist, Pianist Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Скря́бин Aleksandr Nikolaevič Skrjabin; sometimes transliterated as Skriabin Alfred Éric Leslie Satie ( Honfleur, 17 May 1866 – Paris, 1 July 1925) was a French Composer and Peter Joshua Sculthorpe AO OBE (born 29 April 1929 is a noted Australian Composer. In the movement entitled 'The Night's Music' ^[1] ('Musiques nocturnes' in French) of Out of Doors for solo piano (1926), Bartók imitated the sounds of nature . Out of Doors is a set of five piano solo pieces Sz 81 BB 89 written by Béla Bartók in 1926 Béla Viktor János Bartók (March 25 1881&ndashSeptember 26 1945 was a Hungarian Composer and Pianist, considered to be one of the greatest 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.

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. An orchestra is an instrumental ensemble, usually fairly large with string brass woodwind sections and possibly a percussion section as well Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born and generally known as Felix Mendelssohn (February 3 1809 &ndash November 4 1847 was a German Composer Incidental music is Music in a play, Television program Radio program Video game, film or some other form not primarily musical A Midsummer Night's Dream is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, suggested by " The Knight's Tale " from Nocturnes is an Orchestral composition in three movements by the French Composer Claude Debussy. For the musical composition see Chorale. A choir, chorale, or chorus is a Musical ensemble of Singers Achille-Claude Debussy (aʃil klod dəbysi (August 22 1862 &ndash March 25 1918 was a French Composer. The Violin Concerto No 1 in A minor Opus 77 was originally written by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1947 - 1948. Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich ( Russian: ru Дмитрий Дмитриевич Шостакович ( &ndash 9 August 1975 was a Russian Composer French composer Erik Satie composed a series of five small nocturnes. These were however, far different from those of Frédéric Chopin and John Field. John Field is the name of John Field (composer, 19th century Irish composer John Field (Puritan, 16th century British Puritan

The first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata has also been considered a nocturne (certainly, Ludwig Rellstab, who gave the piece its nickname, thought it evocative of the night), although Beethoven did not describe it as one. Ludwig van Beethoven ( English ˈlʊdvɪg væn ˈbeɪtoʊvən, 16 December 1770 &ndash 26 March 1827 was a German Composer and Pianist. The Piano Sonata No 14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op Heinrich Friedrich Ludwig Rellstab ( April 13, 1799 &ndash November 27, 1860) was a German Poet and Music critic

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.

The word was later used by James McNeill Whistler in the title of a number of his paintings, consistent with his theory that fine art should essentially be concerned with the beautiful arrangement of colors in harmony. Painting (pān'tīng in Art, is the practice of applying Color to a Surface (support base such as e Debussy's nocturnes were inspired by Whistler's paintings. Several other artists followed suit.

See also

• Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge by Whistler (painted c. Nocturne Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge is a painting by the American -born British artist James McNeill Whistler, now held in the 1872–

References

1. ^ Maurice J. E. Brown, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, (ed. Sadie), :London, MacMillan, 1980 (1995), Vol. 13, ISBN-10: 0333231112 ISBN-13: 978-0333231111 pp. 258-59.

• Mozart's Notturno in D, K.286: Chicago Symphony Orchestra program notes