Nocturne is the French word for \u2018nocturnal\u2019 (occurring or active at night). When used in reference to music, a nocturne refers to a piece that has been inspired by (or conjures up images\/feelings of) the night.<\/p>\n

The best classical music for the night<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
The story of\u2026 Debussy\u2019s Nocturnes<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
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Examples of a nocturne<\/strong><\/h2>\n
There are numerous nocturnes by famous composers, including examples by Debussy, Mendelssohn and Rachmaninoff. However, with his collection of 21 nocturnes for solo piano, Chopin may be the composer that first springs to mind in relation to this style of music.<\/p>\n
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Perhaps one of the best-known nocturnes from Chopin\u2019s collection is his Nocturne in E Flat Major, Opus<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0 9, number 2, in which the melody has an enchanting dreamlike quality.<\/p>\n\n<h2><strong>Who invented the nocturne?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>While Chopin may be strongly associated with nocturnes, it is Irish composer John Field who is credited with their invention. Field composed 18 nocturnes, the first of which were published in 1814. Liszt would later describe Field\u2019s nocturnes as being as \u201csoothing as the slow, measured rocking of a boat or the swinging of a hammock\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By BBC Music Magazine Published: Tuesday, 26 July 2022 at 12:00 am \u00a0 Nocturne is the French word for \u2018nocturnal\u2019 (occurring or active at night). When used in reference to music, a nocturne refers to a piece that has been inspired by (or conjures up images\/feelings of) the night. The best classical music for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":17575,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/what-is-a-nocturne.png",1524,1010,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/what-is-a-nocturne-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/what-is-a-nocturne-300x199.png",300,199,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/what-is-a-nocturne-768x509.png",768,509,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/what-is-a-nocturne-1024x679.png",800,530,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/what-is-a-nocturne.png",1524,1010,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/07\/what-is-a-nocturne.png",1524,1010,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By BBC Music Magazine Published: Tuesday, 26 July 2022 at 12:00 am \u00a0 Nocturne is the French word for \u2018nocturnal\u2019 (occurring or active at night). When used in reference to music, a nocturne refers to a piece that has been inspired by (or conjures up images\/feelings of) the night. The best classical music for the…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/17574"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}