# "Kinds" of pieces in the solo piano repertoire... What really makes x be x?



## Goddess Yuja Wang (Aug 8, 2017)

Hello.

Just for giggles, I'm in the process of naming some piano pieces, and I'm having a hard time deciding what they are technically (their form and/or proper title/kind). I see that a lot of these kinds do not even have anything to do with the form of the pieces. But some do...

I've been doing some reading about the "kinds" of pieces for solo piano that are still relevant to our time. I'm nowhere near my Harvard Music Dictionary, and most of the definitions I find online seem vague, even contradictory.

Perhaps we can skip for now the most obvious one, the sonata. We know sonatas range from the traditional sonata form to the barely recognizable ones, but unless the title is just a title, we usually have some idea of what to expect from a sonata.

My interest is more about shorter piano pieces. For instance, what makes a *Bagatelle* a Bagatelle? Is it the fact that is a short "simple" or "unpretentious" piece? If so, simple _relative to what? _
The only instances I know of these pieces are Beethoven's, and in this case it seems to support that definition. But is simplicity all there is to them to validly call a piece a Bagatelle? 
Are there any "pretentious" or non-simple ones that you know of? 

How about a Scherzo? The only relatively modern ones I know are Chopin's, which are drastically different from Haydn's or Beethoven's. What makes them scherzi? That they're in 3/4 time? They're so fast they don't really feel like 3/4. Must they be some kind of ABA form? Chopin's 2nd Scherzo feels MUCH more developmental than the 1st, for instance. Too vague. 
Is there anything more rigorous that warrants their name?Style doesn't seem to do it.

How about preludes? Postludes? 
These titles sound to me more about _when_ they're supposed to be performed rather than anything informing us about form or structure of the piece, or even what to expect from them...

Fantasias? Are these basically whatever a composer fancies? Do they even have a common trait?

Impromptus?
The most relevant thing I've found about them is that they are also "short pieces of an improvisatory nature"... What is improvisatory nature, anyway? Relative to what? 
I don't know what's "improvisatory nature" about Chopin's famous Fantasie-impromtu, for instance.

A Toccata?

Intermezzo?

What else is there still in use?

Some, I suppose, are more like composers' eccentricities? For instance, what would Liszt's Liebestraum be technically?

Or are we at a point where these "kinds" don't really mean much anymore and are simply nods to traditional forms/kinds, or even mostly arbitrary titles?

Thank you for any thoughts on this.


----------



## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

A *bagatelle* is more or less in line with what the French word means: something trifling; insubstantial. In relation to a piano piece I suppose it is a title for a piece with nothing more about than a bit of amusement or entertainment value.

A *scherzo* follows almost exactly the form (and 3/4 time) of the minuet and trio which was a common movement in sonatas, quartets, symphonies and divertimenti of the classical period. The scherzo seems to have replaced the minuet as a third (or sometimes second) movement in later works of a similar nature in the work of composers from Beethoven to Mahler. As a piano piece....I guess it follows the minuet form and has some character of a 'scherzo' (a joke).


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Bagatelle: "Mmm yes, a small unsubstantial piece, though perfect in its way of course. I can toss these off in a few minutes. You need not be effusive in your praise. Well, I suppose a _bit _of effusion would be OK."

Impromptu: "Merely something I made up on the spot, sitting at the piano. I wrote it down a couple of days later, thanks to my stupendous musical memory."

Fantasia: "Wild and daring, much like my humble self. No intellectual straitjacket for this genius!"

The others mostly likewise. More products of the composer's intent and vanity than having any clearly definable meanings.


----------



## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

A prelude is generally a shorter free form piece and a fantasia a longer free form piece, impromptus are in this family I think. 

Toccatas are generally about virtuosity featuring fast or lightly fingered sections, typically composed for keyboard or a plucked string instrument, sometimes containing a fugue.


----------



## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

There is a superb discussion of this in Aaron Copland's book _What to Listen For in Classical Music_. He talks about not just piano music forms but pretty much all forms in classical music. The book is worth looking at in general, especially if you have dipped your toes into the classical world but want to know about the terminology and elements of music present in the classical style.


----------

