Nocturne

[2] In its form as a single-movement character piece usually written for solo piano, the nocturne was cultivated primarily in the 19th century.

Later composers to write nocturnes for the piano include Gabriel Fauré, Alexander Scriabin, Erik Satie (1919), Francis Poulenc (1929), as well as Peter Sculthorpe.

In the movement entitled 'The Night's Music'[4] ('Musiques nocturnes' in French) of Out of Doors for solo piano (1926), Béla Bartók imitated the sounds of nature.

It contains quiet, eerie, blurred cluster-chords and imitations of the twittering of birds and croaking of nocturnal creatures, with lonely melodies in contrasting sections.

Other notable nocturnes from the 20th century include those from Michael Glenn Williams, Samuel Barber and Robert Helps.

Frédéric Chopin's Nocturne in G Minor, Op. 15, No. 3. The marking "languido e rubato", slow tempo, and subdued dynamics creates an evocative mood characteristic of nocturnes.