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A short piece or section placed between larger ones — an interlude between acts or movements, or a contrasting episode within a piece; from Schumann and Brahms on, also a self-standing lyrical piano piece.
Printed as a heading over a movement or section set between larger ones (Intermezzo, Intermezzo I), as the title of an independent piano piece, or in opera over orchestral music between scenes. The heading covers that piece or section.
Its meaning shifts with context: an orchestral interlude in an opera (Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana), a contrasting episode inside a piece (Schumann’s Kreisleriana), or, for Brahms, an intimate stand-alone piano piece. Use the title to signal modest scale and a connecting or reflective role rather than a grand statement.
Schumann, Kreisleriana, Op. 16, No. 2, m. 40: “Intermezzo I”, marked “Sehr lebhaft”, breaking into the opening “Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch”; “Intermezzo II” follows at m. 98.
Intermezzo is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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