A scherzo (plural scherzi) is a piece of music, often a movement from a larger piece such as a symphony or a sonata. The scherzo's precise definition has varied over the years, but it often refers to a movement which replaces the minuet as the third movement in a four-movement work, such as a symphony, sonata, or string quartet. Scherzo also frequently refers to a fast-moving humorous composition which may or may not be part of a larger work. The word "scherzo" means "joke" in Italian. Sometimes the word "scherzando" ("joking") is used in musical notation to indicate that a passage should be executed in a playful manner.

In the Baroque period, the term was also occasionally used for both vocal and instrumental compositions, such as Claudio Monteverdi's Scherzi musicali (1607), Antonio Brunelli's Scherzi, Arie, Canzonette e Madrigale (1616) for voices and instruments, Johann Schenk's Scherzi musicale (fourteen suites for gamba and continuo) or the scherzo of Johann Sebastian Bach's Partita No. 3 for harpsichord.

The scherzo developed from the minuet, and gradually came to replace it as the third (or sometimes second) movement in symphonies, string quartets, sonatas and similar works. It traditionally retains the triple meter time signature and ternary form of the minuet, but is considerably quicker. It is often, but not always, of a light-hearted nature.

The scherzo itself is a rounded binary form, but, like the minuet, is usually played with the accompanying Trio followed by a repeat of the Scherzo, creating the ABA or ternary form. This is sometimes done twice or more (ABABA). The "B" theme is a trio, a contrasting section not necessarily for only three instruments, as was often the case with the second minuet of classical suites (the first Brandenburg concerto has a famous example).

A technique that exists in some, but not all, scherzi is transposition of a repeated phrase. For example, in the second movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, the first four measures are played in the dominant key. The four measures following that are a repeat of the first four, but transposed up a perfect fourth to the tonic key. This effect creates the illusion of starting on the 'wrong' key, which corrects itself after the phrase is transposed.

Scherzi are occasionally found which differ from this traditional structure in various ways. For example, a few examples exist which are not in the customary triple meter, such as in Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 18. This example is also unusual in being written in orthodox sonata form rather than the usual ternary form for such a movement, and thus it lacks a Trio section. This sonata is also unusual in that the Scherzo is followed by a Minuet and Trio movement, whereas most sonatas have either a Scherzo movement or a Minuet movement, but not both. Some analysts have attempted to account for these irregularities by analyzing the Scherzo as the sonata's slow movement, which just happens to be rather fast, which would keep the traditional structure for a four-movement sonata that Beethoven usually followed, especially in the first half or so of his piano sonatas.

Joseph Haydn wrote minuets which are very close to scherzi in tone, but it was Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert who first used the form widely, with Beethoven in particular turning the polite rhythm of the minuet into a much more intense — and sometimes even savage — dance.

Most of the scherzi of Beethoven's symphonies (but not of his sonatas), such as that of his Pastoral Symphony, contain two appearances of the trio, in which the second is sometimes varied and after the second of which the scherzo material often returns much foreshortened by way of a coda. Schumann, as noted by Cedric Thorpe-Davie, would very often use two trios also, but different trios.

The scherzo remained a standard movement in the symphony and related forms through the 19th century. Composers also began to write scherzi as pieces in themselves, stretching the boundaries of the form. Out of Frédéric Chopin's four well-known scherzi for the piano, the first three are especially dark and dramatic, and hardly come off as jokes. Robert Schumann remarked of them, "How is 'gravity' to clothe itself if 'jest' goes about in dark veils?" In addition, Brahms regarded the scherzo from his Second Piano Concerto as a "little wisp of a scherzo," yet only sarcastically, as it is a heavyweight movement.

An unrelated use of the word in music is in light-hearted madrigals of the Renaissance period, which were often called scherzi musicali. Claudio Monteverdi, for example, wrote two sets of works with this title, the first in 1607, the second in 1632.

References

Category:Humor Category:Formal sections in music analysis

Coordinates	33°51′35.9″N151°12′40″N
Name	Yundi Li
Birth date	October 07, 1982
Birth place	Chongqing, Sichuan, China
Occupation	Classical pianist
Signature	YunDiLi.png
Parents	Li ChuanZhang Xiaolu
Awards	International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition2000 1st in place2000 The Fryderyk Chopin Society and Warsaw City Council ex aequo prize for the best performance of a polonaise

Li Yundi () (born October 7, 1982) is a Chinese classical pianist. He is also popularly known as Yundi and formerly Yundi Li. Born in Chongqing, Li is most well known for being the youngest pianist to win the International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition, in 2000, at the age of 18. He now resides in Hong Kong.

Childhood

His father, Li Chuan, and his mother, Zhang Xiaolu, both worked for the Sichuan Chongqing Steel and Iron Company. Although coming from a family of non-musicians, Li took to music early. When he was three years old, his parents bought him an accordion after he was so entranced by an accordion player in a shopping mall that he refused to leave. He mastered the instrument by the age of four, studying with Tan Jianmin, a music professor in China. Only one year later, he won the top prize at the Chongqing Children's Accordion Competition. Li began studying piano at the age of seven years. Two years later, his teacher introduced him to Dan Zhaoyi, one of China's most renowned piano teachers, with whom he would study for nine years. Li's ambition was to become a professional pianist. In 1994, he entered the Shenzhen Arts School, Shenzhen, China.

Awards

Li has received top awards at various competitions. He won the Children's Piano Competition in Beijing in 1994.

In October 2000, at the urging of the Chinese Culture Ministry, Li participated in the 14th International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. He was the first participant to be awarded First Prize in 15 years. At 18 years of age, he was the youngest winner — and the first Chinese — in the competition's history. Li was given the "Polonaise award" by the Chopin Society for his performance at the competition.

Li is the subject of a 2008 feature-length documentary, The Young Romantic: Yundi Li, directed by Barbara Willis Sweete.

Li performed a solo recital at the Royal Festival Hall in London on the 16th March 2010. He played a repertoire of Chopin pieces to a sold-out crowd.

Recordings

Chopin

Complete Nocturnes (EMI Classics)

Chopin Recital

Piano Sonata in B minor No. 3 op. 58

Andante spianato et Grande Polonaise brillante op. 22

Études op. 10 Nos. 2 + 5 op. 25 No. 11 »Winter Wind«

Nocturnes op. 9 Nos. 1 + 2 op. 15 No. 2

Impromptu op. 66

CD |D|D|D| 4714792

Franz Liszt

Piano Sonata in B minor

La Campanella

Widmung after Schumann: Liebeslied

Liebestraum No. 3

Tarantella from Venezia e Napoli

Rigoletto-Paraphrase

CD |D|D|D| 471 585-2 SACD |D|D|D| 474 2972 Awards: Echo Award 2003

Chopin: Scherzo & Impromptus

4 Scherzo:

No. 1 op. 20 · No. 2 op. 31

No. 3 op. 39 · No. 4 op. 54

3 Impromptus

No. 1 op. 29 · No. 2 op. 36

No. 3 op. 51

SACD |D|D|D| 474 8782 CD |D|D|D| 474 5162

Vienna Recital

Liszt: Rhapsodie espagnole

Mozart: Piano Sonata KV 330

D. Scarlatti: Sonatas K. 380 + K. 13

Schumann: Carnaval op. 9

CD |D|D|D| 477 557-1 |G|H|

Chopin & Liszt Piano Concerto No.1

Liszt: Concerto for piano no.1 in E-Flat,S.124

Chopin: Concerto for piano no.1 in E-minor,op.11

CD |D|D|D| 00289 477 6402 |G|H|

Prokofiev/Ravel: Piano Concertos

Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major

CD |D|D|D| 477 659-3 |G|H|

Yundi - The Young Romantic

Frédéric Chopin: Scherzo in B minor, op.20 Scherzo in B flat minor, op.31 Scherzo in C sharp minor, op.39 Scherzo in E major, op.54; Franz Liszt: Grandes Études de Paganini: La Campanella

Bonus: Yundi Li plays at La Roque d’Anthéron

DVD 3079058 EuroArts/Ideale Audience

References

External links

Li Yundi at Deutsche Grammophon

Li plays Chopin Scherzo No. 1 Op. 30

Biography of Li Yundi (written by Richard Dyer, Globe Newspaper Company, 4/10/2004)

'The young romantic: A portrait of Yundi Li'

Category:1982 births Category:Living people Category:Chinese classical pianists Category:Chopin Competition winners Category:People with acquired residency of Hong Kong Category:People from Chongqing