Burlesque
A playful, coarsely comic piece of music.
What it means
The burlesque is an instrumental piece of a playful, coarsely comic character, using exaggeration, unexpected dynamic contrasts, and sudden turns to create comedy. The term comes from theater, where burlesque denoted a genre of broad, satirical comedy before being applied to purely instrumental music.
Musical use
In music history, the term burlesque appears in piano and orchestral works of various periods, for instance in movements by Johann Sebastian Bach or in Richard Strauss's Burleske for Piano and Orchestra (1885/86). These works share a playfully exaggerated, often parodic tone.
The burlesque should be distinguished from the scherzo, which can likewise carry a humorous character but serves as a fixed formal movement within cyclical works such as symphonies and sonatas, whereas a burlesque is usually a stand-alone piece.