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Divertimento (from the Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
 divertire - to amuse) is a musical genre, with most of its examples from the 18th century. The mood of the divertimento is most often lighthearted (as a result of being played at social functions) and it is generally composed for a small ensemble
Musical ensemble

A musical ensemble is a group of two or more musicians who perform instrumental or vocal music. In each musical style different norms have developed for the sizes and composition of different ensembles, and for the repertoire of songs or musical works that these ensembles perform....
.

As a separate genre, it appears to have no specific form, although most of the divertimenti of the second half of the 18th century go either back to a dance suite
Suite

In music, a suite is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed in a concert setting rather than as accompaniment; they may be extracts from an opera, ballet, or incidental music to a play or film , or they may be entirely original movements ....
 approach (derived from the 'ballet' type of theatrical divertimento), or take the form of other chamber music
Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber....
 genres of their century (as a continuation of the merely instrumental theatrical divertimento).






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Divertimento (from the Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
 divertire - to amuse) is a musical genre, with most of its examples from the 18th century. The mood of the divertimento is most often lighthearted (as a result of being played at social functions) and it is generally composed for a small ensemble
Musical ensemble

A musical ensemble is a group of two or more musicians who perform instrumental or vocal music. In each musical style different norms have developed for the sizes and composition of different ensembles, and for the repertoire of songs or musical works that these ensembles perform....
.

As a separate genre, it appears to have no specific form, although most of the divertimenti of the second half of the 18th century go either back to a dance suite
Suite

In music, a suite is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed in a concert setting rather than as accompaniment; they may be extracts from an opera, ballet, or incidental music to a play or film , or they may be entirely original movements ....
 approach (derived from the 'ballet' type of theatrical divertimento), or take the form of other chamber music
Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber....
 genres of their century (as a continuation of the merely instrumental theatrical divertimento). There are many other terms which describe music similar to the divertimento, including serenade
Serenade

In music, a serenade is, in its most general sense, a musical composition, and/or performance, in someone's honor. There are three general categories of serenade in music history....
, cassation
Cassation (Music)

Cassation is a minor form consisting of a suite of 18th century short musical works, usually played outside , and almost always beginning with a March ....
, notturno, Nachtmusik; after about 1780, the divertimento was the term most commonly applied to this light, "after-dinner" and often outdoor music. Divertimenti have from one to nine movements, and there is at least one example with thirteen. The earliest publication to use the name "divertimento" is by Carlo Grossi
Carlo Grossi

Carlo Grossi was an Italian composer born about 1634. He died in 1688 at Venice....
, in 1681, in Venice
Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital city of the Italian regions Veneto, a population of 271,251 . Together with Padua, Italy, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area ....
 (Il divertimento de' grandi: musiche da camera, ň per servizio di tavola) --and the hint that the divertimento is to accompany "table service" applies to later ages as well, since this light music was often used to accompany banquets and other social events.

Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty; at seventeen he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position, always...
 is known for having composed different types of divertimenti, sometimes even taking the form of a small symphony
Symphony

A symphony is a musical composition, often extended and usually for orchestra. "Symphony" does not imply a specific form. Many symphonies are tonality works in four movement with the first in sonata form, and this is often described by music theorists as the structure of a "Classical period " symphony, although even some symphonies by the ac...
 (or, more exactly: sinfonia
Sinfonia

Sinfonia is the Italian word for symphony . In music Sinfonia has however some specific meanings and connotations, that are understood when the word sinfonia is used outside the realm of Latin-based languages:...
), for example, the Salzburg Symphonies KV 136-137-138. Even more unusual is his six movement string trio, KV 563, which is a serious work belonging with his string quartets and quintets, for all that it is labeled a divertimento. Other composers of divertimenti include Leopold Mozart
Leopold Mozart

Johann Georg Leopold Mozart was a composer, conductor, teacher, and violinist. He is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gr?ndlichen Violinschule....
, Carl Stamitz
Carl Stamitz

Karel Stamic , who took the German form of his name Karl Philipp Stamitz and is now better known as Carl, was a Czech-German composer, violin, viola and viola d'amore virtuoso....
, Haydn
Joseph Haydn

Joseph Haydn was an Austrians composer. He was one of the most prominent composers of the classical music era, and is called by some the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet"....
 and Boccherini
Luigi Boccherini

Luigi Rodolfo Boccherini was an Italian classical music era composer and cello whose music retained a courtly and galante style while he matured somewhat apart from the major European musical centers....
.

A few examples exist from the 20th century, including works by Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni

Ferruccio Dante Michelangiolo Benvenuto Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conducting....
, Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók

B?la Viktor J?nos Bart?k was a Hungarian people composer and pianist, considered to be one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. Through his collection and analytical study of folk music, he was one of the founders of ethnomusicology....
 and Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was a Russian-born composer, considered by many to be the most influential composer of 20th century music. He was a quintessentially Cosmopolitanism Russian who was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people of the century....
 (from his ballet Le Baiser de la fée
Le Baiser de la fée

Le Baiser de la f?e is a ballet in one act and four scenes composed by Igor Stravinsky in 1928 and revised in 1950 for George Balanchine and New York City Ballet....
).