A nocturne (from the French which meant nocturnal, from Latin nocturnus) is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night. Historically, nocturne is a very old term applied to night Offices and, since the Middle Ages, to divisions in the canonical hour of Matins.
The name nocturne was first applied to 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 9:00pm, the latter closer to 11:00 pm.
In its more familiar 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, 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. One of the most famous pieces of 19th-century salon music was the "Fifth Nocturne" of Ignace Leybach, who is now otherwise mostly forgotten. 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' ('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 one of them, 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.
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).
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
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.
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)
Gabriel Fauré: 13 for solo piano
John Field: originator of the piano nocturne, wrote 16 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)
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)
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
Franz Liszt: one for solo piano entitled En reve ("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
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)
Erik Satie: five for solo piano (1919)
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
Maria Agata Szymanowska: Nocturne in B-flat and Nocturne Le Murmure
Alexandre Tansman: Four Nocturnes, for piano (1952)
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)
Earle Hagen (and Dick Rogers): Harlem Nocturne (1939).
Billy Joel: One for his 1971 album Cold Spring Harbor
Warren Zevon: One for his 1987 album Sentimental Hygiene