Rhapsody (music)

A rhapsody in music is a one-movement work that is episodic yet integrated, free-flowing in structure, featuring a range of highly contrasted moods, color and tonality. An air of spontaneous inspiration and a sense of improvisation make it freer in form than a set of variations. Sergei Rachmaninoff's set of variations on a theme by Niccolò Paganini are so free in structure that the composer called them a Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

Related Topics:
Music - Improvisation - Variations - Sergei Rachmaninoff - Niccolò Paganini - Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

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Rhapsodies particularly appealed to Romantic composers. The heroine's mad scene in Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lammermoor is rhapsodic in form.

Related Topics:
Romantic - Donizetti's - Lucia di Lammermoor

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Some familiar examples will give an idea of the character of a rhapsody:

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• Franz Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsodies
• Johannes Brahms, Rhapsodies for solo pianoforte, and the Alto Rhapsody for alto voice, male choir and orchestra.
• George Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue
• Emmanuel Chabrier, España is a rhapsody on Spanish tunes.
• Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody

An uninspired rhapsody is a pot-pourri.

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