Of all his early chamber works, the Nocturne is most clearly by the mature Vaughan Williams, almost anticipating the influence of Ravel which followed his lessons from the French composer in 1908. In the veiled beauty of its highly chromatic harmonies we hear already the tone-poet of the slow movement of A London Symphony, while in the fleet-footed Scherzo there is already a French influence in the way the folk-song is subtly woven into the texture, only brief snatches of the tune being heard until the penultimate page when it receives fuller treatment.
The work plays for about 10 minutes. The 1904 Scherzo is a vigorous march with fugal episodes which lasts some 6 minutes and may effectively be performed by itself.