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:
His scherzo had a wonderfully light air about it.
From New York Times ● Sep. 30, 2022
Taylor’s entrance into the scherzo was nimble but overwhelmingly wonky, tunewise — a hippo on ice skates.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 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
There’s the scherzo where rejection to study conducting at her violin alma mater Juilliard spurs creativity in her 20s, and she starts an all-female swing ensemble with string instruments and later her own classical orchestra.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 3, 2022
There is no romance, I've substituted for it a scherzo.
From Melomaniacs by Huneker, James
He write the scherzi, the ballades, the études?—you make me enraged.
From Melomaniacs 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
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
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
Some of his scherzos reveal the same fantastic caprice which is found in the medieval gargoyles of Gothic architecture.
From The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 06 Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English. in Twenty Volumes by Francke, Kuno
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.
