Rhapsody |

Greek rhapsodia – singing or chanting of epic poems, epic poem, literally – song, rhapsodic; German Rhapsodie, French rapsodie, ital. rhapsodia

A vocal or instrumental work of free form, composed as a sequence of diverse, sometimes sharply contrasting episodes. For rhapsody, the use of genuine folk song themes is typical; at times his recitation is reproduced in it.

The name “rhapsody” was first given to a series of his songs and piano pieces by X. F. D. Schubart (3 notebooks, 1786). The earliest piano rhapsody was written by W. R. Gallenberg (1802). An important contribution to the establishment of the genre of piano rhapsody was made by V. Ya. Tomashek (op. 40, 41 and 110, 1813-14 and 1840), Ya.

The rhapsodies created by F. Liszt gained particular popularity (19 Hungarian Rhapsodies, from 1847; Spanish Rhapsody, 1863). These rhapsodies use genuine folk themes – Hungarian gypsies and Spanish (many episodes included in the “Hungarian Rhapsodies” were originally published in a series of piano pieces “Hungarian Melodies” – “Melodies hongroises …”; “Spanish Rhapsody” in the 1st edition of 1844-45 was called “Fantasy on Spanish Themes”).

Several piano rhapsodies were written by I. Brahms (op. 79 and 119, shorter and more strict in form compared to Liszt’s; pieces op. 119 were originally called “Capricci”).

Rhapsodies were also created for orchestra (Dvorak’s Slavic Rhapsodies, Ravel’s Spanish Rhapsody), for solo instruments with orchestra (for violin and orchestra – Lalo’s Norwegian Rhapsody, for piano and orchestra – Lyapunov’s Ukrainian Rhapsody, Rhapsody in blues tones” by Gershwin, “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” by Rachmaninov, for singers, choir and orchestra (Brahms’ rhapsody for viola solo, choir and orchestra on a text from Goethe’s “Winter Journey to the Harz”). Soviet composers also wrote rhapsodies (“Albanian Rhapsody” by Karaev for orchestra).

References: Mayen E., Rhapsody, M., 1960.