Nocturne, (French: "Nocturnal"), in music, a composition inspired by, or evocative of, the night, and cultivated in the 19th century primarily as a character piece for piano.
An Iranian refugee mourns the loss of his niece and consoles himself with centuries-old stories from his homeland; a Taiwanese couple offer fruit to the ghost of their daughter; a wordless Bulgarian plays a nocturne to his dead wife in the dark.Central to the story is Ana Gathreaux, a migratory bird biologist, whose husband Russell, an ornithologist, was on the plane.
But when he belatedly introduces a lurid plot, the novel becomes less Joycean nocturne, more Pulp Fiction.
Moved by her rendition of a Chopin nocturne, he decreed that she should not be put to death.
To its western side is the Battersea Bridge (1890); the current structure replaces a wooden bridge (late 18th century) that was the subject of a nocturne by the American-born artist James McNeill Whistler.
The late 18th-century Italian notturno, a collection of lightweight pieces for chamber ensemble, bore little relation to the lyrical 19th-century nocturne.
In Germany the nocturne, or Nachtstück, attracted composers from Robert Schumann to Paul Hindemith (Suite for Piano, 1922).
The complete set also includes a nimble fairies' scherzo, a haunting nocturne rich with horns, a buoyant clowns' dance, and a farewell finale.
He hears the Chopin nocturne through the walls, and it sounds almost ethereal.
At the gravesite, Davis, who also happens to live in Brooklyn, played Wiggins's "Rêve Charmant," a nocturne in D-flat major.
Joseph Pennell's nocturne etching of the Brooklyn Bridge calls to mind the literal translation of ukiyo-e woodcuts — "pictures of the floating world".
