- humoresque
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—humoresquely, adv./hyooh'meuh resk"/ or, often, /yooh'-/, n.a musical composition of humorous or capricious character.[1875-80; HUMOR + -ESQUE, modeled on G Humoreske]
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▪ musicGerman Humoreske,a type of character piece, generally a short piano composition expressing a mood or a vague nonmusical idea, usually more good-humored than humorous. Robert Schumann (Schumann, Robert), the first composer to use the term as a musical title, called his Opus 20 (1839) Humoreske (it is atypically like a long suite). His Opus 88, No. 2, is a humoresque for violin, cello, and piano. The best-known is Antonín Dvořák's (Dvořák, Antonín) Humoresque in G-flat, the seventh in his collection Eight Humoresques for piano (1894). Gustav Mahler originally called his Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1888–99; Songs From the Youth's Magic Horn) “Humoreske.”* * *
Universalium. 2010.
