# What is a divertimento?



## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

I'm curious, but Mozart is the only composer I know to have written them. I am sure there are others, but what exactly is this music form?


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Ah,...the divertimento! I loves me some kv563...hmmm, not exactly sure of the form as a whole but the word comes from 'divertir' which basically means having fun or in a playful or amusing way and well, Mozart kinda does that with a lot of his music but I'm sure it has something to do with that stylistically.


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## jalex (Aug 21, 2011)

It's not really a well defined term even by musical standards, but generally it means a light-hearted suite. Ibert wrote a fun one ('divertissement' because he was French in case you were wondering):


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## emiellucifuge (May 26, 2009)

it obviously has the same latin roots as the english word 'diversion'.

Its light entertainment, meant to distract you from the world.

Many composers besides Mozart have written them


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## emiellucifuge (May 26, 2009)

From wikipedia:

Other composers of _divertimenti_ include Leopold Mozart, Carl Stamitz, Haydn and Boccherini. Several examples exist from the 20th century, including works by Alfred Reed, Nikolai Medtner, Ferruccio Busoni, Vincent Persichetti, Sergei Prokofiev, Béla Bartók, Benjamin Britten, Leonard Bernstein, Gordon Jacob, Lennox Berkeley, Gareth Walters, Malcolm Arnold, Lars-Erik Larsson and Bohuslav Martinů. Igor Stravinsky also arranged a divertimento from his ballet to music of Tchaikovsky, _Le baiser de la fée_, while Joaquín Rodrigo called his 1982 cello concerto a "Concierto como un divertimento" ("Concerto like a divertimento").


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Haydn wrote quite a few as well, though I haven't heard any of them. In Mozart's case there is often little to choose between his early serenades and divertimenti in terms of specific gravity (I think one difference is that his serenades sometimes used more musicians) but I wholeheartedly agree about the later K563 - a real masterpiece that can stand alongside all of his great chamber works.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Party music. That's always been my definition.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

emiellucifuge said:


> it obviously has the same latin roots as the english word 'diversion'.
> 
> Its light entertainment, meant to distract you from the world.
> 
> Many composers besides Mozart have written them


Yes, that's the traditional meaning - diversion, esp. meant to entertain.

But as per the list you posted, after the Classical Era, more recent composers have broken away from the traditional, cliche type meaning of the word. Eg. they changed the genre. The most famous modern one, Bartok's, does have to outer bouncy movements, where he pays homage to the wigs a bit (eg. with that complex counterpoint). But the inner slow movement is not a diversion at all, he goes pretty much "atonal" in that, and with these screaming high pitches played on the violins (glissandos?), he voices great distress at the events of 1939, Europe teetering on the edge of another inevitable war...


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Manok said:


> I'm curious, but Mozart is the only composer I know to have written them. I am sure there are others, but what exactly is this music form?


It's music to play at your own exclusive party, when a new designer label wig gets launched or the latest quill using White Imperial Peacock feathers imported from the far east gets a writing test.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> It's music to play at your own exclusive party, when a new designer label wig gets launched or the latest quill using White Imperial Peacock feathers imported from the far east gets a writing test.


As I said, party music.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I'm not sure what it is, but I think it's caused by a bad diet.


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## TrazomGangflow (Sep 9, 2011)

This thread is one of the questions on my "Questions I wish to know the answers to but are too afraid to ask" list. This satistfied my curiousity for the day.


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