Nocturne

A lyrical night piece where melody sings above flowing arpeggios.

Related

RomanticNocturneRubatoPiano

The nocturne is a lyrical salon piece of the nineteenth century, its melody singing over broken chords like a song without words. It treats night as a tone of voice rather than a landscape.

Origins and dates

Around 1812 the Irish composer John Field wrote the first nocturnes in London and St Petersburg. Chopin wrote twenty-one and used ornament, pedal and free tempo more boldly. Fauré, Grieg and Debussy each continued the line, and the nocturne moved from the salon into the hall.

Listening features

A long melody in the right hand, wide arpeggios in the left, the bass landing first. Listen for rubato, the melody easing at the end of a phrase and returning to tempo. The middle section often darkens, the key or texture thickening before the opening returns. Ornaments are many but serve the song rather than compete with it.

Composers and works

Field, Chopin, Fauré, Grieg, Debussy and Barber.

Lineage

It grows from eighteenth-century night pieces and lyrical miniatures and leads to the song without words, the romance and the film nocturne. It shares its texture with the barcarolle and the lullaby.

Misconceptions

A nocturne is not always about night, nor always slow. Chopin did not invent it; Field wrote the first.

Sources

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "Nocturne" — definitions and dating checked, not quoted
• Jim Samson, The Music of Chopin — context checked, not quoted

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.