The Nocturne is a charming strophic song in the vein of Berlioz's early romances, with two female voices crooning mellifluously in harmony at the third, fifth, and sixth throughout, over simple broken chord figures in the guitar. Scholarship cannot date it precisely, nor even say with certainty that the work by Berlioz'—it may be an arrangement. Certainly, the sentiment of the anonymous poem—"I want to spend my first years inconstant...it's only prudent to love but briefly"—is very un-Berliozian. But an autograph score remains, suggesting that at some point prior to the Symphonie fantastique (1830) Berlioz occupied himself with it. And internal evidence suggests that that point may have occurred before he left La Côte-St.-André for medical studies in Paris in 1821, or very soon thereafter. Though scheduled for inclusion in Bärenreiter's New Berlioz Edition, the work remains unpublished.

© All Music Guide

Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.