Editing Nocturne (section)

==History==
The term ''nocturne'' (from French ''[[:wikt:nocturne#French|nocturne]]'' "of the night")<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nocturne|title=Nocturne Definition from the Free Merriam-webster Dictionary|work=[[Merriam-Webster|Merriam-webster.com]]}}</ref> 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.<ref>Hubert Unverricht and Cliff Eisen, "Serenade", ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by [[Stanley Sadie]] and [[John Tyrrell (musicologist)|John Tyrrell]] (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).</ref>

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 (composer)|John Field]],<ref name=GroveOnline>{{Cite Grove |last=Brown |first=Maurice J.E. |last2=Hamilton |first2=Kenneth L. |title=Nocturne (i)| name-list-style=amp }}</ref> generally viewed as the father of the Romantic nocturne that characteristically features a [[cantabile]] melody over an [[arpeggio|arpeggiated]], even guitar-like accompaniment. However, the most famous exponent of the form was [[Frédéric Chopin]], who wrote [[Nocturnes (Chopin)|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'<ref>[[Maurice J. E. Brown]], in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (ed. [[Stanley Sadie]]), London: Macmillan Publishers, 1980, Vol. 13: {{Page needed|date=March 2015}}<!--Since the article title is not revealed, a page reference is necessary.-->. {{ISBN|0-333-23111-2}}
{{ISBN|978-0-333-23111-1}} pp. 258–59.</ref> ('Musiques nocturnes' in French) of ''[[Out of Doors (Bartók)|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 [[Nocturnes (Debussy)|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 (Shostakovich)|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 (Britten)|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 (Szymanowski)|Nocturne and Tarantella]]'' (1915) and [[Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji]]'s ''Symphonic Nocturne for Piano Alone'' (1977–78).