Humoresque

Arranged for viola and piano by Elias Goldstein, performed by Elias Goldstein (viola) and Monica Pavel (piano)

From Tchaikovsky's Morceaux (1871), performed by the United States Navy Band Symphony Orchestra in 1955

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Humoresque (or in German, Humoreske) is a genre of Romantic music characterized by pieces with fanciful humor in the sense of mood rather than wit.^[1]

Notable examples

Notable examples of the humoresque style are:

Robert Schumann: Humoreske in B-flat major, Op. 20, 1839
Antonín Dvořák: set of eight Humoresques, Op. 101, 1894, of which No. 7 in G-flat major is well known.^[1]
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Humoresque in G major, No. 5 from his Morceaux de salon, Op. 10, 1894
Jean Sibelius: Six Humoresques, Opp. 87 & 89, 1917 to 1918
Noel Rawsthorne: Hornpipe Humoresque for organ, based on The Sailor's Hornpipe and including parts of "Rule, Britannia!" and the Toccata from Widor's Symphony for Organ No. 5^{[citation needed]}

References

^ ^a ^b Randel, Don Michael (1999). The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-00978-9.