Rhapsody (music) - Definition and Overview

A rhapsody in music is a one-movement work that is episodic yet integrated, free-flowing in structure, featuring a range of highly contrasted moods, color and tonality. An air of spontaneous inspiration and a sense of improvisation make it freer in form than a set of variations. Sergei Rachmaninoff's set of variations on a theme by Niccolò Paganini are so free in structure that the composer called them a Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

Rhapsodies particularly appealed to Romantic composers. The heroine's mad scene in Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lammermoor is rhapsodic in form.

Some familiar examples will give an idea of the character of a rhapsody:

• Franz Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsodies
• Johannes Brahms, Rhapsodies for solo pianoforte, and the Alto Rhapsody for alto voice, male choir and orchestra.
• George Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue
• Emmanuel Chabrier, España is a rhapsody on Spanish tunes.
• Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody

An uninspired rhapsody is a pot-pourri.