nocturnes

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
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