Three Noctunes, L. 91

Nocturnes may be connected to two earlier works, neither of which was ever finished, and the scores to both of which are lost. In 1892 the composer wrote that he was nearly finished with Trois Scènes au Crépuscule ("Three Twilight Scenes"), an orchestral triptych after poems by Henri de Régnier. Debussy also worked on a violin concerto for Eugène Ysaÿe, which he called "a study in gray painting". He abandoned both pieces when close to finishing them. Without their manuscripts, there is no certainty that material from either of these works was reused in Nocturnes, but it remains a distinct possibility.