impromptu adj : with little or no preparation or forethought; "his ad-lib comments showed poor judgment"; "an extemporaneous piano recital"; "an extemporary lecture"; "an extempore skit"; "an impromptu speech"; "offhand excuses"; "trying to sound offhanded and reassuring"; "an off-the-cuff toast"; "a few unrehearsed comments" [syn: ad-lib, extemporaneous, extemporary, extempore, offhand, offhanded, off-the-cuff, unrehearsed]

1 an extemporaneous speech or remark; "a witty impromptu must not sound premeditated"

2 a short musical passage that seems to have been made spontaneously without advance preparation adv : without advance preparation; "he spoke ad lib" [syn: ad lib, ad libitum, spontaneously]

English

Etymology

From Latin in promptu 'in readiness'.

Pronunciation

• /ɪmprɒmptju/

Adjective

1. Improvised; without prior preparation; extemporaneous; unplanned.

   The party began with an impromptu rendition of 'Happy Birthday'.

Translations

Noun

1. a short musical composition for an informal occasion often with the character of improvisation and usually to be played solo.

Translations

An impromptu (loosely meaning "offhand") is a free-form musical composition with the character of an improvisation, usually for a solo instrument, such as piano.

The first recorded use of the term impromptu in this sense occurred in 1817, in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, an idea of the publisher to describe a piano piece by Voříšek.

It didn't take long before the first generation of Romantic composers took up the idea:

• Jan Václav Voříšek was the first one to compose impromptus, in 1822.
• Franz Schubert published two sets of four Impromptus for piano op. 90 and 142 (1827). After his death 3 more unnamed piano compositions (Klavierstücke) were sometimes named Impromptus.
• Frédéric Chopin composed 4 Impromptus, including the famous Fantaisie-Impromptu.
• Robert Schumann wrote some Impromptus, published as Op. 5.
• Franz Liszt composed an Impromptu in F sharp (sometimes called Nocturne) and a piano piece named Valse-Impromptu.
• Jean Sibelius composed six pompromptus for piano op. 5 (1893)

The impromptu genre remained popular all throughout the 19th century.

In the 20th century there are fewer examples of composers naming their compositions "Impromptu", e.g.:

• Gabriel Fauré composing six Impromptus between 1881 and 1913.
• Maurice Journeau composing six Impromptus between 1871 and 1874.
• Donald Martino composing Fantasies and Impromptu in 1980.
• One of Queen's compositions, performed at Wembley Stadium in 1986 is named Impromptu.

References

• New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians

Notes

ad lib, ad libitum, ad-lib, ad-libbing, arrangement, at short notice, at sight, by ear, cadenza, caught napping, caught off balance, caught short, extemporaneous, extemporaneously, extemporaneousness, extemporarily, extemporariness, extemporary, extempore, extemporization, extemporized, flourish, haphazard, hasty, hot lick, improvisation, improvisatorial, improvise, improvised, improvision, improviso, interpolation, jury-rig, jury-rigged, lick, makeshift, measure, off the cuff, off the hip, off-the-cuff, offhand, on sight, out of hand, playing by ear, precipitate, pro tempore, quick, riff, rough-and-ready, snap, stopgap, surprised, taken aback, taken by surprise, taken unawares, temporary arrangement, temporary measure, tripped up, unarranged, unbegun, unconcocted, uncontrived, undeliberated, undevised, unhatched, unmade, unmanufactured, unorganized, unplanned, unpremeditated, unprepared, unprimed, unready, unrehearsed, unstudied, vamp