Intermezzo, << ihn tuhr MEHT soh, >> is a type of musical composition that has had many functions during its history. The plural is intermezzos or intermezzi. Intermezzos originated during the 1500’s as an instrumental or vocal piece performed between the acts of a play. These intermezzos became a forerunner of opera. In Italy in the early 1700’s, an intermezzo was a short comic work performed between the acts of a serious opera. During the 1600’s in Italy and the 1600’s and 1700’s in France, opera companies often used ballets as intermezzos between the acts of operas.
During the 1800’s, an intermezzo came to mean a short orchestral piece inserted into an opera. Pietro Mascagni‘s Cavalleria Rusticana (1890) is an example of an opera with an intermezzo. The term also refers to a brief movement in a symphony, concerto, or sonata. Felix Mendelssohn included an intermezzo in his incidental music (1843) for William Shakespeare‘s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Separate compositions for solo piano were also known as intermezzos. During the 1800’s, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms composed many such intermezzos.
Some composers of the 1900’s have added intermezzos as light interludes in larger works. One example is Béla Bartók‘s Concerto for Orchestra (1944).
See also Opera (Opera seria and opera buffa); Drama (Intermezzi and operas).
