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Humoresque
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Humoresque (German: Humoreske) is a genre of Romantic music characterized by pieces with fanciful humor in the sense of mood rather than wit.[1]
Notable examples
[edit]Notable examples of the humoresque style are:
- Robert Schumann: Humoreske in B-flat major, Op. 20, 1839
- Antonín Dvořák: set of eight Humoresques, Op. 101, 1894, of which No. 7 in G-flat major is well known.[1]
- Sergei Rachmaninoff: Humoresque in G major, No. 5 from his Morceaux de salon, Op. 10, 1894
- Jean Sibelius: Six Humoresques, Opp. 87 & 89, 1917 to 1918
- Noel Rawsthorne: Hornpipe Humoresque for organ, based on The Sailor's Hornpipe and including parts of "Rule, Britannia!" and the Toccata from Widor's Symphony for Organ No. 5[citation needed]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]Look up humoresque in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
- ^ a b Randel, Don Michael (1999). The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-00978-9.
Humoresque
View on Grokipediafrom Grokipedia
A humoresque is a genre of Romantic music characterized by fanciful, whimsical, or capricious compositions that evoke humor through mood and expressive contrasts rather than literal wit or comedy.[1][2]
The term originated in early 19th-century German literature during the Biedermeier period, where it described short prose sketches capturing the fragility, contradictions, and shifting dispositions of human nature, derived from the medieval Latin humor referring to bodily fluids believed to influence temperament.[2] Adapted to music, it first appeared as a title in Robert Schumann's Humoreske in B-flat major, Op. 20, a large-scale piano work composed between 1838 and 1839 and published in 1839, which unfolds in five interconnected sections blending introspective lyricism with playful, kaleidoscopic shifts in character.[2][3]
The genre gained prominence in the late 19th century through works by composers such as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, whose Humoresque, Op. 10 No. 2 (1871–1872) is a light, scherzando piano piece in G major based on a French popular song, emphasizing rhythmic vitality and melodic charm.[4][5] Most famously, Antonín Dvořák contributed the Humoresques, Op. 101 (B. 187), a cycle of eight piano pieces composed from 7 to 27 August 1894, originally conceived as "New Scottish Dances" inspired by his earlier Scottish Dances, Op. 41 but renamed to reflect their diverse, good-humored moods across varied tempos and keys.[6][7] The seventh humoresque in G-flat major, marked poco lento e grazioso, stands out for its lyrical elegance and has become a perennial classical favorite, frequently arranged for violin and orchestra and performed as an encore.[6]
Humoresques typically feature concise forms, instrumental focus (often piano or chamber ensembles), and a blend of lively capriciousness with occasional melancholy, distinguishing them from more structured genres like the scherzo.[2] While rooted in Romanticism, the form influenced later 20th-century composers seeking expressive freedom, though it remains most associated with its 19th-century exemplars.[2]

