Divertissement is a musical genre

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The beginning of the era of classicism in Austrian music is characterized by a variety of new forms and genres. One of them is divertissement. Translated from French, this word means "entertainment".

What is divertissement

Divertissement is a musical genre. The works created in it are usually intended for performance on instruments. However, during the period of its inception, plays in this genre could also be performed by voice.

Divertimento was especially widespread in the works of the Viennese classics (Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven), as well as in the music of the masters of the Mannheim school, for example, Jan Stamitz. These were compositions of free form and diverse in character.

Divertissement is a genre that has no clear signs. Pieces with this name could have been written in the form of a sonata or suite, and they also had different instrumental composition. Divertissements sounded in concert halls, and the listeners were princes, dukes, counts and other aristocrats.

Characteristic features of the genre

The chamber orchestra used to play divertissement. An ensemble of ten or more people was often called an orchestra during the Viennese classic era. Typically, such a team includedseveral violins and viols, two or three flutes, an oboe, a clarinet and a harp. If the piece had a bright and cheerful character, the composer added timpani to the orchestra.

Divertissement is a typical product of the classical era. A homophonic work with a clearly defined functional harmony and dance rhythm. The flexible, plastic melody often resembled a singing cantilena. Sometimes in these pieces the composer solved creative problems, for example, he mastered modulations or a new musical instrument.

Sometimes a composition of several contrasting works was called a divertissement. Later, this was the name given to a ballet dance based on a musical suite of contrasting numbers.

Mozart's divertissements

Many fine compositions of this genre belong to the greatest genius of all time - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He wrote pieces for various instrumental ensembles. Peruvian composer owns works for piano duets with violin, cello and clarinet, as well as for string quartets and other ensembles.

Mozart knew how to create great music. The divertissement, which he wrote for a string quartet and two horns, still wins the hearts of listeners today. This beautiful music is very popular. The composer wrote many operas, symphonies and concertos, but it is the cheerful and cheerful divertissement that attracts the attention of a wide range of listeners. This composition breaks all records of popularity, according to the number of downloads inNetworks.

Unfortunately, divertissement in D major is rarely taught in music schools. Mozart has much deeper, more complex and philosophical works. The main feature of the plays of this genre is entertainment. Cheerful, light music will always be popular with connoisseurs and lovers.

The development of the genre in the following centuries

After the end of the era of Viennese classicism, composers almost forgot about divertissement. During the dominance of the romantic style, simplicity and sincerity of feelings, confidential lyrical intonation were valued in music. The brilliant divertissement turned out to be outside the priority genre circle.

Composers gave this name only to transcriptions of popular operas. Such arrangements of arias and romances for different instrumental compositions had a suite form and were built on the principle of alternating fragments of a different nature. An example is Franz Schubert's Hungarian Divertimento for piano four hands.

Only in the 20th century, when a retrospective trend called "neoclassicism" came into fashion, did this genre return to the orbit of musical priorities again. The new reconstructed divertissement is a work based on an intellectual game.

The composer deliberately takes apart an old classical composition into separate parts, and then puts them back together. The music turns out to be a little cold, aloof and stylized antique. This genre was addressed by suchoutstanding modernist composers like Igor Stravinsky, Bela Bartok, Albert Roussel. This is how divertissement remained in the historical memory of art - a bright and brilliant product of the classical era.