character piece

English

Etymology

Calque of German Charakterstück.

Noun

character piece (plural character pieces)

1. (music) A musical composition that expresses a specific mood or non-musical idea.
   • 2016, Erik Wallrup, Being Musically Attuned: The Act of Listening to Music, page 36:

     That does not mean that all character pieces of this period present moods expressly, only that the musical term 'character' is not always telling for character pieces, to put it crudely.

2. A work of art (painting, sculpture, writing, film, etc.) that has as its subject matter the description or depiction of an individual person or character.
   • 2005, Stephen Stahlberg, ‎Pascal Blanche, ‎ Daniel Wade, Character Modeling, page 60:

     In spite of it being a character piece, I really loved how the rocks and dirt were brought to life.

   • 2007, A. Kingston, Oscar Wilde as a Character in Victorian Fiction, page 115:

     Wilde was impressed by Beerbohm's critical, yet laudatory character piece on him in the Anglo-American Times of March 25, 1893, entitled 'OW by [Max Beerbohm masquerading as] an American'.

   • 2014, Bradford Schmidt, ‎Brandon Thompson, GoPro: Professional Guide to Filmmaking, page 238:

     The "Leah Dawson 'Slow Down'" video is a magical character piece.

Translations

Translations

See also

• program music

Further reading

• “character piece”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “character piece”, in Collins English Dictionary.