Humoreske in B-flat major, Op. 20, is a romantic piano piece by Robert Schumann, composed in 1839 and dedicated to Julie von Webenau. Schumann cited Jean Paul's style of humour as source of inspiration, although there are no direct programmatic links to Jean Paul's oeuvre found in the piece.
The Humoreske consists of seven sections (not originally indicated as such by the composer except for the last one, "Zum Beschluss"), to be played attacca after each other. Although the piece is nominally written in B-flat major, most of the piece is set in B-flat major's relative minor key, G minor. The musical texture and emotional tone, though, varies widely and differs greatly between the sections:
A typical performance is about 27 minutes long.
References
Humoreske (Schumann) Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA