Fantasia
Generally speaking, a composition in which the "free
flight of fancy" prevails over contemporary conventions of form,
style, etc. Naturally, the term covers a great variety of types,
which may be tentatively classified as five groups.
1) Pieces of a markedly improvisory
character; written records, as it were, of the improvisation technique
of the various masters.
Bach's "Chromatic Fantasia"
Mozart's "Fantasia in D minor for piano"
Beethoven's "Fantasia", op. 77
2) Character
pieces of the romantic era. Here "fantasia" is one
of the various titles used to indicate a dreamlike
mood or some other fanciful whim.
Brahms' "Fantasien", op. 116
3) Sonatas in freer form, or of a special
nature.
Schubert's "Wanderer Fantasie", op. 15
Schumann's "Fantasie", op. 17
4) Operatic potpourris of a free
and somewhat improvisory treatment, as if written
in remembrance of a performance
Liszt's "Reminiscences de Don Juan"
5) In the 16th and 17th centuries,
a term for instrumental music that was sometimes
used interchangeably with ricercar.
These were written for the lute, for keyboard instruments, and for instrumental
ensembles.