Nocturne by Ethel Smyth was written as part of 2 Canons around 1877 to 1880. This free Fullscore pdf download includes two full versions (see below) of the piano piece.
 
Its subtitle, Canon in Contrary Motion (Kanon in Gegenbewegung), implies that it may offer a few challenges for pianists attempting to bring out canonical voice leadings. The left hand also jumps regularly into right-hand territory, albeit for short periods; this edition provides clarity arounds these challenges. Imagine you might be playing a piece by J S Bach, with a little lyrical Chopin thrown in for good measure.
 
Note: there are two versions included in the download file: our new, Fullscore 'Intermediate' edition in addition to the 'Original' edition. Both have been newly re-engraved. We recommend playing from the 'Intermediate' edition, which removes all the confusing (and difficult) cross-hand and large interval jumping challenges.
 
Dame Ethel Mary Smyth (1858-1944) was an English composer and author, a pioneer for women in the classical music world. Between 1880 and 1930 she published two sets of lieder, several songs for voice and piano or chamber ensemble, numerous chamber pieces (listen to her Piano Trio in D Minor and String Quartet in C Minor), two symphonic works, 
six operas, a mass, and a choral symphony. Born into a wealthy (but unsupportive) English family, she studied in Germany, where she met inspirational composers and teachers. 
 
On returning to England, she wrote mainly operas for nearly a decade (although they were not particularly popular in Britain during that time) and joined the suffragette movement. She fought against societal restrictions that said a woman should not have a profession. She was detained in Holloway Prison for two months for throwing a rock through the window of the House of Parliament. 
 
During World War I, in her late 50s and 60s, she worked as an assistant radiologist.  Her hearing began to slowly deteriorate, and she was fully deaf by the time she received compositional recognition and a damehood. Smyth was openly bisexual and had a relationship with the married suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, to whom she dedicated her piece The March of the Women. Later in life, the rambunctious Smyth met and became lovers with the much younger and soft-spoken author Virginia Woolf – opposites attract, they say.
 
Smyth’s most notable compositions are her opera, The Wreckers, and The March of the Women, commonly considered the ‘anthem’ of the suffragette movement. She died in 1944 at the age of 86, in Woking, England, where a statue stands in her memory.
 
Dame Ethel Mary Smyth portrait (1910) by John Singer Sargent [National Portrait Gallery, London]
 
Hear Nocturne beautifully played by Jennifer King (from her album Souvenance, 2025) on Spotify or YouTube.
 
Cover image: Adagio by George Agnew Reid (1893).