Humoresque
A humorous character piece.
What it means
The humoresque (German Humoreske) is a character piece, usually for piano, whose title refers to a humorous, capricious tone. What is meant is not plain comedy but humour in the sense of the nineteenth century: a change of moods, a juxtaposition of the cheerful and the melancholy, a sudden turning. The extent ranges from a short piece to multi-part layouts that string together several characters.
Musical use
As a genre the humoresque belongs to the piano music of the Romantic period and stands alongside bagatelle, arabesque, intermezzo, and fantasy piece. Its musical means are abrupt changes of tempo, key, and character, surprising pauses, displacements of emphasis, and ironic recourse to simple models such as dance or chorale. The form is free, often serial; Schumann’s Humoreske in B-flat major, Op. 20 (1839), is a five-part piano cycle on a large scale, whereas Dvořák’s Humoresques, Op. 101 (1894), are short pieces, the seventh of which became especially famous. The genre is thus an example of how in the nineteenth century titles designate the character and not the blueprint — the order of the piece follows from the expression, not from a scheme.
Performance practice
Take the changes seriously and shape them sharply; whoever connects everything takes the wit from the piece. Hold rests, for they carry a large part of the effect. Watch for exact articulation and for light, not heavy, tone production. Plan the coherence across the sections so that the serial does not become disintegration — small tempo relations help. Practise the transitions separately, because the effect arises precisely there, and use the pedal sparingly. Mark the break points in the score. Check whether the title comes from the composer, because publishers occasionally added such designations afterwards.