Scherzo

Scherzo is Italian for "joke," and many scherzos live up to the name with sudden accents, surprising silences and witty rhythmic games. Musically, a scherzo is a fast movement in triple meter, so fast that you feel one beat per bar rather than three.

From minuet to scherzo

In the Classical symphony, sonata and string quartet, the third movement (sometimes the second) was usually a minuet. Haydn already used the title scherzo in some of his string quartets, and Beethoven made the scherzo standard, replacing the courtly minuet with something faster, rougher and more dramatic. The second movement of his Ninth Symphony is a famous, driving example.

The form

Most scherzos keep the minuet's shape:

• Scherzo (A): usually a rounded binary form with repeats.
• Trio (B): a contrasting middle section, often calmer, in a different key or texture.
• Scherzo again (A), often without repeats, sometimes followed by a coda.

That makes the whole movement a ternary ABA. Beethoven sometimes extended it to A B A B A, playing the trio twice.

How to feel it

Because the tempo is fast, counting "1-2-3" in every bar quickly becomes frantic. Count one big beat per bar instead and group the bars in fours. Accents on weak beats and sudden pauses are often the point, so keep them sharp.

The independent scherzo

In the Romantic era the scherzo also became a stand-alone piece. Chopin's four Scherzos for piano are large, dramatic works, far from jokes, though they keep the fast triple meter and the contrasting middle section. Mendelssohn's Scherzo from his music for A Midsummer Night's Dream is a light, quick orchestral example closer to the playful meaning of the word.

Related words

The performance direction scherzando ("playfully") asks for a light, joking character in any piece; see scherzando.