A rhapsody in music is a one-movement work that is episodic yet integrated, free-flowing in structure, featuring a range of highly contrasted moods, colour, and tonality.
[1] The first solo piano compositions with the title, however, were Václav Jan Tomášek’s fifteen Rhapsodies, the first of which appeared in 1810.
[1] Interest in Romani violin playing beginning in the mid-19th century led to a number of important pieces in that style, in particular by Liszt, Antonín Dvořák, George Enescu, Ernst von Dohnányi, and Béla Bartók, and in the early 20th century British composers exhibiting the influence of folksong composed a number of examples, including Ralph Vaughan Williams's three Norfolk Rhapsodies, George Butterworth's A Shropshire Lad, and Frederick Delius's Brigg Fair (which is subtitled "An English Rhapsody").
During the post World War II era, John Serry Sr. showcased the chromatic piano accordion within his American Rhapsody (Alpha Music Publishing, 1955).
[8] Though described by its composer Freddie Mercury as a "mock opera",[9] it has also been characterized as a "sort of seven-minute rock cantata (or 'megasong') in three distinct movements".