Scherzo

Definition

Scherzo means “joke, jest.” As a movement of a symphony, quartet or sonata, it is the fast heir of the minuet: same triple meter and same scherzo – trio – scherzo form, but a much faster tempo (Allegro molto, Presto), the bar felt “in one” (a single beat per bar) and an energetic, ironic, sometimes demonic character. Haydn uses the word in the Quartets Op. 33 (1781); Beethoven makes it the standard third movement; in the nineteenth century the scherzo also became an independent piece (Chopin).

Form

Scherzo: rounded binary with repeats, often very extended (with a development in the second part).
Trio: contrasting in key, orchestration and character (often more cantabile or rustic).
Scherzo da capo (sometimes written out in full and varied).
Coda.
Five-part variant: S – T – S – T – S (Beethoven, Symphonies No. 4 and No. 7), in which the trio returns a second time.

Stylistic traits

Hypermeter: since the bar is a single beat, bars are grouped in fours that work as “big” bars. Beethoven plays with this regularity: in the Scherzo of the Ninth Symphony he writes in the score “Ritmo di tre battute” (rhythm of three bars) and then “Ritmo di quattro battute” (rhythm of four bars), changing the length of the groups.
Surprise: sudden silences, sforzandos on weak beats, abrupt dynamic changes, “wrong” timpani entrances (the timpani alone on the octaves of F in the Ninth).
Counterpoint: fugatos in the trio or in the scherzo (Beethoven, Fifth: the trio with the fugato of the cellos and double basses).
Orchestral color: light woodwinds, pizzicato, staccato (Mendelssohn).

Examples

Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 “Eroica,” III: scherzo with the trio of the three horns.
Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, III: the Scherzo in C minor fades to pianissimo and leads without interruption (attacca) to the finale in C major; its material returns inside the finale.
Beethoven, Symphony No. 9: the Scherzo is in second place, with a fugal exposition.
Mendelssohn, Scherzo from A Midsummer Night's Dream (1842): very light staccatos in woodwinds and strings, the model of the “elf scherzo.”
Chopin, four Scherzos for piano (Op. 20, 31, 39, 54): autonomous, dramatic pieces, very far from the idea of a light “scherzo”; the Scherzo No. 2, Op. 31 in Bb minor/Db major is the most performed.
Bruckner: massive, ostinato scherzos, almost like amplified peasant dances.
Dukas, The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1897), subtitled “scherzo symphonique.”

Example to write (D minor, 3/4 “in one,” ♩. about 100 = one bar)

Scherzo, first part (16 bars): motif of three ascending eighth notes repeated, groups of 4 bars, cadence in F major (III).
Second part: sequence and false recapitulation in G minor (iv), then return to D minor.
Trio in D major: legato wind melody over a D–A drone.
Return of the scherzo with an unexpected group of 3 bars before the coda.

For a producer

The “thinking in one” of the scherzo is the same as in fast genres where the beat is felt in whole bars (drum and bass felt at 87 instead of 174, jungle, fast metal): the interest comes from how you group the bars (4+4, 3+3+2, groups of 3 like Beethoven). Try inserting a group of 3 bars where the listener expects 4: it is a very powerful tool of surprise, even in a drop.

Minuet and trio, The symphony: structure of the movements, Meter, subdivision, half-time and double-time, Advanced harmonic rhythm (hypermeter), Ballade and free Romantic form.