Arthur Foote was an American often associated with a group of composers known as the Boston Six, the others being Edward MacDowell, John Knowles Paine, Horatio Parker, George Chadwick, and Amy Cheney Beach. This enclave is important in the development of American music because its members were among the first to write first-rate serious music that at least partially broke from European styles. Known for his songs and chamber music, Foote was one of the more important of the group, and this work, A Night Piece, is one of his most popular and most representative compositions. That said, its music may be better-known in its original guise, as the Nocturne section of Foote's 1918 Nocturne and Scherzo, for flute and string quartet. The larger scoring here was done at the behest of conductor Pierre Monteux. A Night Piece may be slightly more atmospheric than the original in capturing the somewhat wistful exoticism of the main theme. When the strings take up the melody after the flute's rendition of it, they impart a greater sense of warmth. The livelier alternate theme is playful and sweet, perfectly matched by Foote to the perky sonorities of the flute. Lasting about eight minutes, the work is subdued throughout, its Romanticism slightly cool and Delian-sounding, and its writing, especially for the flute, quite deftly imagined.

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