Impromptu

The impromptu is a short solo piano piece written to sound spontaneously improvised while remaining fully composed, a character piece of the Romantic era whose masters are *Franz Schubert* and *Frédéric Chopin*. *Schubert*'s two sets of four, D. 899 and D. 935, published in 1827 and 1828, founded the type: songlike melody over flowing accompaniment, usually in a three-part design with a contrasting middle section. *Chopin*'s four impromptus, including the posthumous "Fantaisie-Impromptu", and later sets by *Gabriel Fauré* and *Alexander Scriabin* kept the form alive into the twentieth century.