Bagatelle (music)

A bagatelle is a short piece of music, typically for the piano, and usually of a light, mellow character. The name bagatelle literally means "a short unpretentious instrumental composition" as a reference to the light style of a piece (OED 2001; Kennedy and Kennedy 2007). Although bagatelles are generally written for solo piano, they have also been written for piano four hands, harpsichord, harp, organ, classical guitar, vibraphone, unaccompanied oboe, clarinet, violin, viola, various chamber-music configurations, orchestra, band, voice and piano, and a cappella choir.

The earliest use of the name "bagatelle" for a musical work was by François Couperin, in his tenth harpsichord ordre (1717), in which a rondeau is titled "Les bagatelles" (Brown 2001).

The best-known bagatelles are probably those by Ludwig van Beethoven, who published three sets, Opp. 33, 119 and 126, and wrote a number of similar works that were unpublished in his lifetime including the piece that is popularly known as Für Elise. Other notable examples are Franz Liszt's Bagatelle sans tonalité (an early exploration into atonality), a set for violin and piano (Op. 13) by François Schubert of which No. 9, The Bee, is often performed, the set by Antonín Dvořák for two violins, cello and harmonium (Op. 47), and sets by Bedřich Smetana, Alexander Tcherepnin and Jean Sibelius. Anton Diabelli also wrote a bagatelle in a short, happy form. Camille Saint-Saëns wrote Six Bagatelles, Op. 3, and Friedrich Baumfelder also wrote just one bagatelle, Op. 386, which was composed in his later years.

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