nocturne

Noun

nocturne (plural nocturnes)

1. A work in a genre of piano music of moderate tempo with a highly-decorated, improvisatory melody.
   • “My tastes,” he said, still smiling, “incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet.” And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: “I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I’d rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don’t like dull colours...1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
   • For all its grace, charm, and apparent simplicity, [Frédéric] Chopin’s Nocturne in E♭ major, Op. 9, No. 2, poses fundamental problems on close inspection. The fact that so many analyses of the piece – including those of Heinrich Schenker and Felix Salzer – fail to explain certain idiosyncratic...1999, John Rink, “‘Structural Momentum’ and Closure in Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2”, in Carl Schachter, Hedi Siegel, editors, Schenker Studies 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page...
2. A work of art relating or dedicated to the night.
   • He [James Abbott McNeill Whistler] was then asked for his definition of a Nocturne: “I have perhaps, meant rather to indicate an artistic interest alone in the work, divesting the picture from any outside sort of interest which might have been otherwise attached to it. It is an arrangement of line...1908, E[lizabeth] R[obins] Pennell with J[oseph] Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, London: W[illiam] Heinemann; Philadelphia, Pa.: J. B. Lippincott Company, →OCLC
   • When John Ruskin, a sort of pope among the art critics of the time, was faced with [James Abbott McNeill] Whistler’s canvases at the opening exhibition of The Grosvenor Gallery in 1877, he was so outraged that he attacked Whistler in a review, charging him with wilful imposture for “flinging a pot...1996, Peter Wagner, “Oscar Wilde’s ‘Impression du matin’ – an Intermedial Reading”, in Icons – Texts – Iconotexts: Essays on Ekphrasis and Intermediality [European Cultures; 6], Berlin, New York...