The composition Nocturno, H 47, was composed, like The Song without Words (Píseň beze slov), H 46, no later than 1912. Both piano pieces are dedicated to Miss Božena Pacoldová and Martinů sent them together in one document to the editors of the magazine Zlatá Praha, where he asked for their publication. The editors, however, chose only the first of them, The Song without Words, which they printed in February 1912.
In the autograph, the composition is introduced by a paraphrase from Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther: "Seděli jsme s Lottou na balkoně a a [sic] poslouchali hudbu zaznívající sem z tanečního sálu. Verther [sic].“
Jana Burdová, 2024