A character piece is a musical composition which is expressive of a specific mood or non-musical idea.

History

The term "character piece" was coined by Marin Marais in the ''avertissement'' to his fifth book of

viola da gamba The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitch ...

music published in 1725. He writes that ''pièces de caractère'' are now received favorably by the public, so he has decided to insert many of them. Marais's pieces such as "La Petite Badinage" and "Dialogue" have descriptive, literary titles which differ from the ordinary stylized dance pieces of the time. In German, ''Charakterstück,'' was originally used for a broad range of 19th-century

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

music based on a single idea or program, although attempts to use musical effects to describe nonmusical subjects are “probably as old as music itself.” Character pieces are a staple of Romantic music, and are essential to that movement's interest in the evocation of particular moods or moments. What distinguishes character pieces is the specificity of the idea they invoke. Many character pieces are composed in

ternary form Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form consisting of an opening section (A), a following section (B) and then a repetition of the first section (A). It is usually schematized as A–B–A. Prominent examples includ ...

, but that form is not universal in the genre. A common feature is a title expressive of the character intended, such as

Stephen Heller Stephen Heller (15 May 1813 – 14 January 1888) was a Hungarian pianist, teacher, and composer whose career spanned the period from Schumann to Bizet. Heller was an influence for later Romantic composers. He outlived his reputation, and was a ...

's ''Voyage autour de ma chambre'' ("Voyage around my room"), an early example of the genre, or Bruckner's ''Abendklänge'' ("Evening harmonies"). Many character pieces have titles based on literature (