romance

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romance (It. romanza, Ger. Romanze). Title with no strict formal application—composers use it as they fancy, vocally or instrumentally. Generally it implies a specially personal or tender quality. Mozart called the slow movt. of his pf. conc. No.20 in D minor (K466) a ‘Romance’. Schumann wrote Drei Romanzen. Vaughan Williams used the term several times: his The Lark Ascending for vn. and orch. is a ‘Romance’ (1914), he wrote a Romance for harmonica, str., and pf. (1951), and the slow movt. of the 5th Sym. (1943) is entitled Romanza. Elgar wrote a Romance for bn. and the 13th ‘Enigma’ var. is Romanza.

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