''Nocturnal'' (1961) for

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

, male

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

, and

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

, is a

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called ...

Edgard Varèse Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse (; also spelled Edgar; December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965) was a French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States. Varèse's music emphasizes timbre and rhythm; he coined ...

with text consisting of syllables by Varèse and words and phrases adapted from ''

House of Incest ''House of Incest'' is a slim volume of 72 pages written by Anaïs Nin. Originally published in 1936, it is Anaïs Nin's first work of fiction. But unlike her diaries and erotica, ''House of Incest'' does not detail the author's relationships wit ...

'' by

Anaïs Nin Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell (February 11, 1903 – January 14, 1977; , ) was a French-born American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories and erotica. Born to Cuban parents in France, Nin was the d ...

(1936), revised and completed posthumously by Chou Wen-chung (1968), The piece is commissioned by and dedicated to the

Koussevitzky Music Foundation Sergei Alexandrovich KoussevitzkyKoussevitzky's original Russian forename is usually transliterated into English as either "Sergei" or "Sergey"; however, he himself adopted the French spelling " Serge", using it in his signature. (SeThe Koussevi ...

, published 1972. It includes music for flexatone and two ondes Martenots. The use of Dada-like "

meta-language In logic and linguistics, a metalanguage is a language used to describe another language, often called the ''object language''. Expressions in a metalanguage are often distinguished from those in the object language by the use of italics, quot ...

" in '' Ecuatorial'' and in ''Nocturnal'' was suggested by

Antonin Artaud Antoine Marie Joseph Paul Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud (; 4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), was a French writer, poet, dramatist, visual artist, essayist, actor and theatre director. He is widely recognized as a major figure of the E ...

.Bramble, John and Bradley, Peter T. (2015).
Modernism and the Occult
', unpaginated. Springer. . The premier was conducted by Robert Craft at The Town Hall in New York on May 1, 1961.

References

1961 compositions 1972 compositions Compositions by Edgard Varèse Modernist compositions Music commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky or the Koussevitzky Music Foundation Compositions for orchestra Vocal musical compositions Musical compositions completed by others {{classical-composition-stub