What is "nocturne"

Nocturne \Noc*turne"\, n. [F. See Nocturn.] (Mus.) A night piece, or serenade. The name is now used for a certain graceful and expressive form of instrumental composition, as the nocturne for orchestra in Mendelsohn's ``Midsummer-Night's Dream'' music.

1862, "composition of a dreamy character," from French nocturne, literally "composition appropriate to the night," noun use of Old French nocturne "nocturnal," from Latin nocturnus (see nocturnal). Said to have been coined c.1814 by John Field, who wrote many of them, in a style that Chopin mastered in his own works, which popularized the term.

n. 1 A work of art relating or dedicated to the night. 2 A dreamlike or pensive composition (usually for the piano).

n. a pensive lyrical piece of music (especially for the piano)

A nocturne (from the French which meant nocturnal, from Latin nocturnus) is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night. Historically, nocturne is a very old term applied to night Offices and, since the Middle Ages, to divisions in the canonical hour of Matins.

Nocturne is a live double-album by English rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, released in 1983 and remastered in 2009, which featured performances recorded at two shows at the Royal Albert Hall on 30 September and 1 October 1983, featuring Robert Smith (of The Cure) on guitar. Most of the material came from Juju and A Kiss in the Dreamhouse, plus a couple of B-sides ("Pulled to Bits" and "Eve White/Eve Black"). Also included was a live version of The Beatles' "Dear Prudence"; the Banshees had recorded and released a studio version of the song as a single earlier that year.

A video version was released on DVD in 2006. Bonus features included the Play at Home TV special from 1983, the "Dear Prudence" music video and performances from The Old Grey Whistle Test.

The music heard at the introduction of "Israel" is " The Rite of Spring", composed by Igor Stravinsky.

Nocturne is a survival horror adventure video game set in the late 1920s and early 1930s – the Prohibition and Great Depression era. The player takes the part of The Stranger (voiced by Lynn Mathis), an operative of a fictional American Government secret organization known as "Spookhouse", which was created by President Theodore Roosevelt to fight monsters. He investigates four strange cases and saves people from classic monsters such as werewolves, zombies, and vampires.

Nocturne (Talia Josephine "T.J." Wagner) is a member of the reality-hopping Exiles and formerly associated with New Excalibur.

Nocturne is a 1946 black-and-white film noir starring George Raft and Lynn Bari. The film was produced by longtime Alfred Hitchcock associate Joan Harrison, scripted by Jonathan Latimer, and directed by Edwin L. Marin.

A nocturne is a musical composition inspired by, or evocative of, night.

Nocturne may also refer to:

"Nocturne" was the winning song in the Eurovision Song Contest 1995, performed in Norwegian by Secret Garden representing Norway. It was the second time Norway won the contest, after it had won in 1985 with Bobbysocks! song " La det swinge". For their performance at the Contest the Secret Garden duo of Fionnuala Sherry and Rolf Løvland featured two guest musicians; Norwegian vocalist Gunnhild Tvinnereim and Swedish nyckelharpist Åsa Jinder.

Nocturne was an industrial band formed in 1995 in Dallas, Texas. The band's core members were Lacey Sculls and Chris Telkes, and several touring musicians, usually Ben Graves of the Murderdolls and "Rotten" Rotny also guitar player of the industrial/metal band Psyclon Nine.

Nocturne is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

Nocturne is an album by American jazz musician Charlie Haden, released through Universal/Polygram in 2001. In 2002, the album won Haden the Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album.

Nocturne, Op. 60, is a song cycle by Benjamin Britten, written for tenor, seven obbligato instruments and strings. The seven instruments are flute, cor anglais, clarinet, bassoon, harp, French horn and timpani.

Nocturne was Britten's fourth and final orchestral song cycle, after Our Hunting Fathers (Op. 8, 1936), Les Illuminations (Op. 18, 1939) and Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (Op. 31, 1943). It was dedicated to Alma Mahler.

Nocturne was premiered in the Leeds Town Hall at the centenary Leeds Festival on 16 October 1958 by Peter Pears and the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Rudolf Schwarz.

The theme of the piece, as its name Nocturne suggests, is sleep and darkness, both in the literal and figurative sense. In this respect, the work is reminiscent of Britten's earlier Serenade. Unlike Serenade, Nocturne is presented as a continuous piece rather than separate movements. This is emphasised by a number of figures which occur throughout, most notably the 'rocking' string motif which opens the work. The conflicting tonal relationship between C and D-flat is also evident throughout, reflecting the contrast between the untroubled and the more perturbed aspects of sleep which are also described by Britten's choice of poems.

Nocturne is the debut album by American metal band The Human Abstract. It was recorded at The Basement in Rural Hall, North Carolina and Trax East in South River, New Jersey. On the band's MySpace page, as well as in the Metal=Life compilation CD, the last 30 or so seconds of "Desiderata" are included as part of the intro to "Vela, Together We Await the Storm". Music videos were made for "Crossing the Rubicon" (directed by Darren Doane) and "Vela, Together We Await the Storm" (directed by Michael Grodner). Nocturne has sold roughly 40,000 units in the USA since its release in August 2006.

Nocturne painting is a term coined by James Abbott McNeill Whistler to describe a painting style that depicts scenes evocative of the night or subjects as they appear in a veil of light, in twilight, or in the absence of direct light. In a broader usage, the term has come to refer to any painting of a night scene, or night-piece, such as Rembrandt's The Night Watch.

Whistler used the term within the title of his works to represent paintings with a "dreamy, pensive mood" by applying a musical name. He also titled (and retitled) works using other terms associated with music, such as a "symphony", "harmony", "study" or "arrangement", to emphasize the tonal qualities and the composition and to de-emphasize the narrative content. The use of the term "nocturne" can be associated with the Tonalism movement of the American of the late 19th century and early 20th century which is "characterized by soft, diffused light, muted tones and hazy outlined objects, all of which imbue the works with a strong sense of mood." Along with winter scenes, nocturnes were a common Tonalist theme. Frederic Remington used the term as well for his nocturne scenes of the American Old West.

Nocturne is an album by American saxophonist Oliver Nelson and vibraphonist Lem Winchester. It was originally released in 1961 on Prestige Records, as part of the "Moodsville Series". As the title implies, Nocturne is a collection of mellow songs with relaxed, late-night feeling.

Nocturne is the second studio album by American indie rock act Wild Nothing, released on August 28, 2012 on Captured Tracks.

Nocturne is the third EP by South Korean boy band 2AM. It was released in November 27, 2013 with the song "Regret" as the title track. Prior to the official release of their third EP, 2AM pre-released 'Just Stay' from their third mini album 'Nocturne' on November 19, 2013. 'Just Stay' is a soft R&B that is calm and soothing. It is about a girl who is having troubles with her lover and a man who is in love with that girl. The song 'Only You' is reminiscent of nineties K-Pop and R&B, which makes this one of the standout tracks in regard to the evolution of 2AM. 'To An Angel' is also more uptempo than the songs that 2AM is known for and is a solid pop song. 'You’re Prettier The More I See You' is very jazzy.