Introduction
Character piece is a literal translation of the German Charakterstück, a term, not very precisely defined, used for a broad range of 19th century short and independent lyrical piano pieces, outlining some definite mood, human character, or literary conception. The term is less frequently applied to music for another instrument (example violin; never voice) with piano accompaniment, but very seldom for larger ensembles.
Character piece (Charakterstück)
Historical background
In the 16th and 17th century music for lute and harpsichord, character pieces are common.

Examples:

  • Giles Farnaby's 'Dream', 'His humour', 'Tell Me Daphne'
  • Couperin's Les Abeilles (The Bees) and Le Reveille-matin (The Clock)
  • Froberger's 'Tombeau fait à Paris sur la mort de Monsieur Blancrocher' or the 'Meditation sur ma Mort Future'
In the 18th century C.P.E Bach continued this tradition, writing a series of character pieces, the so-called 'Berlin Portraits' including 'La Caroline'. Of course, in Bach's 'Empfindsame Stil', the 'Affekt' plays an important role and Rousseau's theory of musical imitation: music should imitate the composer's feelings in order to touch the audience.


Titles of character pieces
The titles of the character pieces indicate the character or the style of the music rather than its form. Some have abstract titles such as 'Bagatelle', 'Moment musical', 'Impromptu', 'Intermezzo', 'Etude', 'Prelude' etc, others are mood pictures as 'Nocturnes', 'Romance', 'Barcarolle', 'Berceuse'. Still others are dances such as 'Waltz', 'Ländler', 'Mazurka','Polonaisse' etc. Examples can be found in the work of Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Grieg and Brahms.

Large sets of many individual character pieces, intended to be played as a single piece of music, were not uncommon; Schumann's many works of this form (including Papillons, Kreisleriana and Carnaval) are the best known examples.
Form
General speaking, character pieces have a simple musical form with a lyrical content. Often used: a ternary form A-B-A with a contrasting middle section B. Some modifications can be found:

  • introductory section or a coda
  • a second middle section B' (variant of B) or C (not related to B)
  • varied return of A, so A-B-A'
Remarks
  • More wide-ranging in mood and extended in scale are the 'ballades', 'capriccios','rhapsodies','scherzos' of Chopin and Brahms.
  • Not only German and Scandinavian composers, but also French, English, Italian and Hungarian composers made character pieces. To mention a few: Fauré and Milhaud, Delius and Britten, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Casella, Kodaly and Bartok