scherzo
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of scherzo
First recorded in 1850–55; from Italian: literally, “joke,” derivative of scherzare “to joke,” of Langobardic origin (compare German Scherz “a joke, jest”)
Explanation
A scherzo is a very fast section of classical music, often within a larger composition. A scherzo is usually upbeat and sometimes even humorous. The plural form of scherzo is scherzi. Many symphonies and sonatas include scherzi, often in their second or third movements. The scherzo developed from the minuet, another lively musical form which itself came from a French dance. In Italian, scherzo means "joke" or "sport," from the root word scherzare, "to jest or joke," and this describes the lighthearted mood of many scherzi.
Vocabulary lists containing scherzo
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A bulldozer of a scherzo intensified what was a lingering menace, and the fourth movement rondo released it from its cage.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 28, 2022
The scherzo, too, was uniquely dispatched, the conductor switching between characters on his stage, especially during its ravishing trio.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 18, 2022
It opens with a marching, vibrant first movement, followed by a scherzo driven by perpetual-motion runs for strings.
From New York Times ● Dec. 30, 2021
They had to make decisions, like determining whether a sketch indicated the starting point of a scherzo, which is a very lively part of the symphony, typically in the third movement.
From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2021
Once at a small theatre I did the whole of the Mendelssohn music to the Dream, excepting the scherzo, on a band of eighteen, and it didn't sound half bad.
From Shakespeare and Music by Wilson, Christopher
He write the scherzi, the ballades, the études?—you make me enraged.
From Melomaniacs by Huneker, James
Notwithstanding the grandeur and beauty of the grave, the power and passion of the scherzo, this Sonata in B flat minor is not more a sonata than it is a sequence of ballades and scherzi.
From Chopin : the Man and His Music by Huneker, James
The valses are the most objective of the Chopin works, and in few of them is there more than a hint of the sullen, Sargasson seas of the nocturnes and scherzi.
From Chopin : the Man and His Music by Huneker, James
These scherzi, however, brought him more note than profit, and soon afterwards he returned to Martinique.
From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 16 by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
She could think of no tunes but dances—andantes turned scherzi, the Handelian largo became a Castilian tango.
From We Can't Have Everything by Hughes, Rupert
Her scintillating accounts of the scherzos deftly balance bursts of breathless passagework and plaintive lyricism.
From New York Times ● Oct. 28, 2021
“I think of composers I love — whether Verdi’s ‘Falstaff’ or Beethoven’s scherzos, or even those weird moments in Mahler where there’s humor,” Adams said.
From New York Times ● Apr. 16, 2021
Once the excitable St. Lawrence enters, those dotted Beethoven rhythms from the scherzos of his late quartets and symphonies become manic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2016
Rather than CDs containing all the scherzos or mazurkas, he chose instead to mix genres, with the result being an unusually refreshing listening experience.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 31, 2015
I wish I could take out Beethoven's scherzos!
From The Journal of Arthur Stirling : the Valley of the Shadow by Sinclair, Upton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
