Another of Beethoven’s technical innovations should also be mentioned. On the whole, Beethoven continued to use Classical forms for his symphonies and other multimovement works. As early as his Second Symphony, however, he replaced the traditional minuet with another kind of movement, which he called the scherzo (scáir-tzo). This is a fast, rushing movement in triple meter — inherited from the minuet — and in the basic minuet-and-trio form, A B A. Beethoven’s scherzos sometimes go so fast that they need more repetitions to make their point; A B A can be extended to A B A B A.

The word scherzo means “joke” in Italian. Beethoven’s brand of humor is very different from, say, Haydn’s: It is broad, brusque, jocular, even violent. Originally associated with the court of Louis XIV, the minuet still stood for eighteenth-century formality and elegance; one can see why Beethoven rejected it. The scherzo became an ideal vehicle for Beethoven’s characteristic rhythmic drive. See page 214.