Nocturne 1 in F sharp minor, H 91, is a short piece, lasting about eight minutes. The instrumentation is more sombre this time, with the celesta absent and the activity of piano and harp drastically curtailed. The discreet addition of trombones lends a certain solemn dignity at several points. Again, there is no percussion except a pair of cymbals, roused to action only twice. After the opening chord, the strings are left to themselves for the almost the whole of the first section. Muted murmurings in the misty key of F sharp minor support an extensive and plangent viola solo. The absence of wind instruments for long stretches forms a marked contrast with H 90 [Composition for Large Orchestra], and yet the inflections of the viola line have a kinship with the extended oboe melody from that work. Once again there is no tempo indication at the start, but there are several later on. When the theme returns at the end of the work, Martinů marks it Lento, which is presumably also his intention at the outset.
The viola solo gradually winds down to the lowest note of the instrument. This C natural is extended for eight bars beneath syncopated parallel chords in the upper strings. The moment inescapably recalls Debussy, and yet the precise content of the chords again anticipates an important element of Martinů’s later style. The full orchestra is roused for a brief, solemn march of about a dozen bars, containing the only loud music in the Nocturne. Martinů was aware that a longer peroration would swamp the piece: for the first time, he shows that love of proportion and restraint which would serve him so well in the symphonies. The march is followed by a curious episode where a pianissimo tremolando line in the first violins is shadowed and harmonised by the harp and piano, with the other instruments silent. The texture evokes memories of his recent melodrama Vážka (“The Dragonfly”, H 83) scored for speaker, piano, harp and a violin asked to play tremolando and sul ponticello throughout, in imitation of the insect.
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It is a sad fact that several of Martinů’s works from this period are now lost. He is known to have written a second orchestral Nocturne [H 96] shortly after completing the first [H 91], but only the title page has survived. It bears the subtitle Roses dans la Nuit (‘Roses in the Night’) and the additional description Symphonic Dance No. 2. Halbreich has given a separate catalogue number, H 96, to this work. Both he and Šafránek are satisfied that this sheet is not the missing title page for H 90. A second ballet, Tance se závoji (“Dances with a Veil”, H 93), completed in July 1914, has also vanished. One of the works which does survive, the Ballade [on Böcklin´s Painting “Villa by the Sea”], H 97, for orchestra, points in its turn to further losses. It clearly belongs to the same cycle as the second Nocturne, since its title page carries the designation Symf. tanec č. 4 (“Symphonic Dance No. 4”). No trace of the first and third works in the group has ever been found.
Michael Crump, Martinů and the Symphony, Symphonic Studies No. 3, Toccata Press, London, 2010, s. 26–28.