What is a character piece?

Novelettes, Moments musicaux, arabesques – the Romantic period produced a wealth of small piano works with poetic names, known as “character pieces”. They offered a refreshing contrast to classical genres such as the sonata, fugue or étude, which followed stricter formal schemes or posed greater technical challenges. Character pieces are primarily concerned with one thing: capturing certain moods, scenes or emotions. In contrast to programme music, there is no illustrative transfer of external phenomena to the music, no birdsong, no rushing brook, no thunderstorm scene. The emotional state is revealed in the music. Robert Schumann summed it up after composing his Novelletten for his beloved Clara: “My music now seems wonderfully intricate to me, despite its simplicity, so full of eloquence straight from the heart.” 

Almost all the great composers wrote character pieces, the best known of which are probably Schumann’s Kinderszenen (Scenes from childhood) with the intimate “Träumerei” (reverie), Frédéric Chopin’s nocturnes and Felix Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte (Songs without words). These works captivate listeners with their songlike quality and poetic charm. Despite their concise form and naturalness, they are musically rich and technically demanding. Thus, they not only express individual feelings, but also the virtuosity and artistic sensitivity of the pianist.