One of the biggest proponents of the nocturne was Polish composer Frédéric Chopin. It is thought to be a main component of the nocturne that the right-hand melody imitates the inflections and melodic nuances of a singer. This emphasis on folk melodies are what give the nocturne its song-like and almost vocal, melodic quality. Some of his first published work after arriving there were piano variations of Russian folksongs: Air Russe Varié For Piano, 4 Hands in A minor, H.10, and Kamarinskaya For Piano, H.22. But what we consider today a nocturne is pretty different, and that traces back to almost a century later in Ireland.įield moved from London to Russia in 1802 and spent a large portion of his life there, gathering influence from many Russian folk songs he picked up. Mozart’s “Notturno” in D, K.286 and “Serenata Notturna” K.239 are examples of this early style of nocturnes. The name at this point was just a marker of time and had very little to do with the actual musical content. The Italian notturno signified the time of day the piece should be performed (typically after 11pm) and was commonly used as to described a piece with several movements which were meant to be played at different times of night.
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Although the name nocturne comes from the French word for “nocturnal,” the origins of the term in music were first used in Italy in the 18th century. Defining the NocturneĪ nocturne is a musical composition that reflects the moods and feelings of night time. It’s hard to know what you’re actually listening to sometimes.Įventually, we’d love to demystify all of these terms, because whether you’re a burgeoning composer or a prolific bedroom beat maker, it’s great to be able to identify what distinguishes a piece of music from another, but let’s start with one of the moodiest, emotionally gripping ones: the nocturne. It has also led to the creation of countless, elusive, multilingual terms like sonata, aria, opus, etude, and fugue - which is a lot. Symphonic music is one of the few genres that relies almost solely on written musical notation and has spawned the invention of many instruments, harmonic concepts, and ensemble formations (the most influential being the symphonic orchestra) that are used in all styles of music today.
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In fact, European classical music is so diverse that the only common denominator shared amongst pieces in its vast repertoire is that modern Western musical notation was basically invented in order to be able to read and interpret it all with seemingly no loss in translation. Subscribe now to start learning on the ’Fly.ĭespite what many people think, classical music isn’t just a single, monolithic genre of music written by an old, stuffy bunch of dead guys. + Welcome to Soundfly! We help curious musicians meet their goals with creative online courses. Whatever you want to learn, whenever you need to learn it.