Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A lively movement, commonly in 3/4 time, introduced as a replacement for a minuet in pieces with multiple movements.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In music, a passage or movement of a light or playful character; specifically, one of the usual movements of a sonata or symphony, following the slow movement, and taking the place of the older minuet, and, like it, usually combined with a trio. The scherzo was first established in its place by Beethoven.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Mus.) A playful, humorous movement, commonly in 3-4 measure, which often takes the place of the old minuet and trio in a sonata or a symphony.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun music A piece of music or a
movement from a larger piece such as asymphony ; especially, a piece of music played in a playful manner.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a fast movement (usually in triple time)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Beethoven's most charming scherzo is based upon what might now be considered a skillfully handled Negro melody.
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The first movement went at a tremendous, irresistible pace, the slow one stayed just on the right side of sentimentality, the scherzo was a tissue of delicate tracery, the finale joyously affirmative.
Daniel Hope and Friends Andrew Clements 2010
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"Anagrams for Christophe Grozs contain the word scherzo and scherzi.
Environment news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk 2009
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The scherzo is the flickering of mad watery lights, a fantastic whipping dance, a sudden sinister conclusion.
Musical Portraits Interpretations of Twenty Modern Composers Paul Rosenfeld 1918
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The second movement is a very playful scherzo, which is designated as elf-like -- as light and swift as possible.
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Mr. Welser-Möst brought structural shape to the run-on scherzo, which is not easy.
NYT > Home Page By ANTHONY TOMMASINI 2011
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Mr. Welser-Möst brought structural shape to the run-on scherzo, which is not easy.
NYT > Home Page By ANTHONY TOMMASINI 2011
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And then there's the symphony's scherzo, which is based on a separate piece Mahler wrote using an excerpt about St. Anthony of Padua from the German folk poems "Des Knaben Wunderhorn".
Chicagoist 2010
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The name "scherzo" in this connection is to be taken as signifying a play of fancy, rather than an especially playful mood in the sense of mirthfulness; in fact, it is not easy to find a rational explanation of the grounds upon which Chopin named his pieces, especially as between the ballad and the scherzo.
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To a very quick "scherzo" the performer now added the first notes of an "adagio."
The Lesser Bourgeoisie Honor�� de Balzac 1824
bilby commented on the word scherzo
Italian - joke, prank, tomfoolery.
September 16, 2009