Divertimento (It.: ‘diversion’, ‘recreation’, ‘enjoyment’; Eng.

and
Ger. by usage; Fr. divertissement).
Hubert Unverricht, revised by Cliff Eisen

https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.07864
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001

A musical genre, prominent in the Classical period.

1. The term.

Following its original Italian meaning, ‘divertimento’ is generally understood, first, to denote a work
primarily designed for the entertainment of the listeners and the players, without excluding the
possibility of high artistic achievement, such as is found in divertimentos by Haydn, Boccherini and
Mozart. Second, a divertimento could serve as background music for some social gathering such as a
conversazione or a banquet. H.C. Koch (1802) defined the divertimento as follows: it normally had solo
instrumentation; it was neither polyphonic nor extensively developed like the sonata; it was intended to
please the ear rather than express different shades of emotion; historically it stood between the
parthia and the quartet or quintet. This meaning seems to have crystallized about 1780; before then
the term was more variously applied, but almost exclusively to music for solo instruments. Historically,
then, it denoted ‘a solo work’ rather than ‘a diverting work’.

Various other forms of outdoor music or table music (see Serenade, Cassation, Finalmusik, Notturno,
Nachtmusik, Partita, Feldparthie, Feldmusik, Tafelmusik) are related to the divertimento; the titles all
have different shades of meaning, but the categories often overlap. Some scholars have regarded
‘divertimento’ as a generic term for all such outdoor music; others have regarded it as simply the most
generally applicable collective term; still others view each form as a separate entity (Hausswald, for
example, in his work on Mozart, treats the serenade as the most general category).

The inexactitude with which titles were applied, by composers, copyists and publishers, makes it still
harder to differentiate between the various types of work allied to the divertimento (or to divertimento-
like music in general). Titles were freely interchanged; a work described by any of those listed in the
preceding paragraph might equally appear in other sources as ‘sinfonia’, ‘sonata’, ‘trio’,
‘trattenimento’ or ‘allettamento’. The form, number of instruments used, function, place or even hour
of performance might affect the title chosen. Sometimes titles were coupled to provide clearer
definition (e.g. Mozart’s Serenata notturna K239). One title did not necessarily exclude another but
might suggest a different emphasis. ‘Divertimento’ often replaced ‘sonata’ in southern German music
in 1760–75, and was common in the Latin countries; the frequency of the term’s use helped it to
become regarded as a comprehensive one. From 1780 onwards the title ‘divertimento’ was the
commonest among those applied to music of a light character. The ways in which the various related
titles have been applied, and their individual meanings, are discussed in separate entries under the
headings concerned.

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2. Form.

Studies of the divertimento – and this applies equally to the serenade and the notturno – were often
confined to Mozart’s works and did not examine the genre in wider contexts; nor has the significance
of the divertimento’s normal cyclic structure been fully recognized. It may comprise from one to nine
movements, and occasionally as many as 13; its larger manifestations are thus suite-like in movement
structure.

From the time of Wagenseil the Austrian divertimento for harpsichord usually had three movements,
Allegro–Andante–Allegro, or Allegro–Minuet–Presto or Allegro; this is the form used by Haydn in his
youth. In his keyboard pieces of the 1750s or 60s the title ‘partita’ can be found alongside that of
‘divertimento’, though other Austrian composers preferred the term ‘divertimento’. Earlier
divertimentos, with a more polyphonic texture (such as those by Porsile, J.C. Mann, Wagenseil and
Asplmayr), often followed this three-movement plan, but composers also varied the choice and
arrangement of movements by including dance-like ones as in the earlier suite. Their divertimentos
have up to nine movements. While Haydn retained the three-movement plan in his keyboard
divertimentos, Divertimenti a tre and notturni for orchestral performance, he favoured a five-movement
divertimento form for the Divertimento a quattro, a cinque etc.; this was widely used by his
contemporaries and may have influenced Mozart, who generally preferred the divertimento in five or
more movements (though his divertimentos for wind alone are mostly in four). Not all the titles are by
Mozart himself. A five-movement structure, consisting of Allegro first and last movements, minuets
second and fourth, and a central Andante, was almost a norm during the 1760s.

The form of the typical divertimento first movement is characteristically galant. It follows the structure
usually described as ‘rudimentary sonata form’: the movement is binary (with repeats of both sections),
reaching the dominant (relative major in the rare minor-key movements) at the end of the first, with
the principal subject reappearing immediately after the double bar (less often the second subject), and
a shortened reprise after a modulating passage. (This avoidance of thematic or motivic elaboration no
doubt led to the use of the term ‘divertimento’ for free interludes in fugues.) In its cyclical formation
and in the structure of its first movement the divertimento may form a historical link between the suite
or partita and the sonata; it may also be used at the beginning of a Classical sonata or sinfonia.

3. History.

The earliest known use of the term ‘divertimento’ as a title is in Bargaglia's Trattenimenti ossia
divertimenti da suonare (1567). The title of Carlo Grossi's Il divertimento de’ Grandi: musiche da
camera, ò per servizio di tavola (1681) makes clear the closeness of the divertimento to banqueting
music, a relationship maintained to some degree during much of the 18th century. The term was
applied to instrumental music in Giorgio Buoni’s Divertimenti per camera for two violins and continuo
op.1 (1693) and (in its French form) by Johann Fischer in his Musicalisches Divertissement, a collection
of overtures and suites (1699–1700). (The term ‘divertissement’ had been used in France from the late
15th century; it was extensively applied in the 17th and 18th centuries to a ‘diverting’ interpolation
within a larger stage work. See Divertissement.) During the early 18th century terms like

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‘trattenimento’, ‘allettamento’ and ‘ballo’ were often used by Italian composers for sonatas of a lighter
kind, rather than ‘divertimento’; Francesco Durante, however, wrote Sei sonate divisi in studii e
divertimenti for keyboard (published c1732).

In the pre-Classical and early Classical periods the divertimento was much cultivated, particularly at
the courts, large and small, of southern Germany, Austria, Bohemia and to some extent northern Italy,
and encompassed all types of music for solo instruments. The forces employed vary a great deal, as is
to be expected in a repertory largely created for occasional use. Three main types of instrumentation
are found: for keyboard, with or without accompanying instruments; for wind ensemble (commonly
based on two oboes, two bassoons and two horns); and for strings (trio, quartet or quintet), often
augmented by two horns, sometimes flute, oboe or both.

The divertimento for keyboard was closely akin to the sonata. Among those who wrote solo keyboard
divertimentos are Wagenseil, Haydn and Joseph Schuster; the more popular accompanied form was
used by Georg Benda, Leopold Hofmann, Rosetti, Piccinni (according to the Breitkopf catalogue), F.X.
Richter, Vanhal, Haydn and Mozart (K254). The wind repertory includes several six-part divertimentos
by Mozart and three by Haydn; Mozart also wrote divertimentos for less usual wind combinations,
notably a set for clarinets and basset-horns and others for two each of oboes, english horns, clarinets,
bassoons and horns. Wagenseil composed divertimentos for two each of oboes, english horns, bassoons
and horns, which also exist as ‘Suites de pièces’ for obbligato piano with two clarinets, two bassoons
and two horns. The divertimento for strings, with or without other instruments, is the most important
category; it may be that in some cases composers had orchestral rather than solo performance in mind.
Among those who wrote divertimentos for strings, sometimes with one or more of flutes, oboes and
horns, are Asplmayr, Dittersdorf, Hofmann, Holzbauer, Kammel, Mann, Monn, Pichl, Vanhal, Gassmann
(a large number for trio and quartet), Jommelli (a set for quartet), Boccherini (sets for quartet and for
flute with string quintet) and several Mannheim composers, including Johann and Carl Stamitz and G.
Toeschi, as well as Michael and Joseph Haydn and Leopold and Wolfgang Mozart. Joseph Haydn wrote
several divertimentos including the baryton, some for string quartet and quintet, a number with flute,
oboe and strings and a small group of late works for two flutes and cello; a set of six published as his
op.31 (HX:12), for flute, horns and strings, are largely arrangements. Mozart’s most important
divertimentos are those for strings and two horns, K247, 287/271b and 334/320b, substantial, six-
movement works though generally in a light vein; they were composed for various Salzburg families.
Mozart’s string trio K563, a piece of orthodox chamber music, is entitled ‘divertimento’ presumably
because of its six-movement form. There are very few divertimentos from northern Germany (C.P.E.
Bach made no contribution to the genre) and a small number from France, where the title
‘divertissement’ was sometimes used for sonata-like works of a light character.

Many of the divertimentos of the period 1760–80 have the lowest part marked simply ‘basso’, a term
that designated the lowest part and was not an instrumental specification. Webster has shown that
many four-part works probably reckoned on a cello playing the bass part, while Bär and Somfai
suggest that this part, even in string quartets, was played not only on a cello but also on a double bass,
and perhaps by a bassoon as well. For early string quintets, especially those composed outside Vienna,
the bass part was frequently played by solo violone (Eisen, 1994). In works performed in the open air
the part was normally played on a double bass alone or with bassoon (a bassoon is specified with the
‘basso’ of Mozart’s K205/173a, with violin, viola and two horns). But it is unlikely that a double bass
was used to double or replace the cello in string quartets written after 1770.

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Changing attitudes to music and changing social conditions brought about the end of the
divertimento’s existence in the last years of the 18th century. Neither Beethoven nor Schubert wrote
divertimentos, though Beethoven’s op.25 Serenade is one in all but name and Schubert was among the
composers (who also include Steibelt, Moscheles and Kuhlau) to use the term ‘divertissement’ for light
and brilliant works for the piano. In the 20th century several composers applied the title to music of a
comparatively easy-going, diverting character: they include Busoni (for flute and orchestra, op.52,
1920), Bartók (for strings, 1939), Berkeley (for chamber orchestra, op.18, 1943), Stravinsky (a concert
suite, 1949, from his ballet The Fairy’s Kiss) and Henze (for two pianos, 1964).

Bibliography
BrookB

MGG1 (‘Divertimento, Cassation, Serenade’; H. Engel)

MGG2 (H. Unverricht)

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A. Sandberger: ‘Zur Geschichte des Haydn’schen Streichquartetts’, Altbayerische Monatsschrift, 2 (1900), 41;
rev. in Ausgewählte Aufsätze zur Musikgeschichte (Munich, 1921/R), 224–65

W. Fischer: ‘Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Wiener klassischen Stils’, SMw, 3 (1915), 24–84

K. Strom: Beiträge zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Marsches in der Kunstmusik bis Beethoven
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G. Rigler: ‘Die Kammermusik Dittersdorfs’, SMw, 14 (1927), 179–212, pp.xi–xiii

H. Hoffmann: ‘Über die Mozartschen Serenaden und Divertimenti’, Mozart-Jb 1929, 59–80

W. O. Strunk: ‘Haydn’s Divertimenti for Baryton, Viola, and Bass’, MQ, 18 (1932), 216–51

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G. Hausswald: ‘Der Divertimento-Begriff bei Georg Christoph Wagenseil’, AMw, 9 (1952), 45–50

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E. Fruchtman: ‘The Baryton: its History and its Music Re-examined’, AcM, 34 (1962), 2–17

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R. Hess: Serenade, Cassation, Notturno und Divertimento bei Michael Haydn (diss., U. of Mainz, 1963)

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(Stuttgart, 1994), 127–51
See also

Cassation

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