Afterpiece
Sign in to saveAn afterpiece (or postlude, German term Nachspiel is also used in English texts) is a short, usually humorous one-act playlet or musical work following the main attraction (the full-length play or music piece) and concluding the theatrical evening or religious service. In terms of content, there was usually no connection to the main performance. A similar theatrical piece preceding the main attraction is a curtain raiser.
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
6 sectionsContents
- Music
- European theatre
- Variants
- Postludes as part of dramas
- Notes
- Bibliography
An afterpiece (or postlude, German term Nachspiel is also used in English texts) is a short, usually humorous one-act playlet or musical work following the main attraction (the full-length play or music piece) and concluding the theatrical evening or religious service. In terms of content, there was usually no connection to the main performance. A similar theatrical piece preceding the main attraction is a curtain raiser.
== Music == In church music, a postlude is an outgoing voluntary, the term adopted from Latin-German Postludium (from , "behind, after" + ludus, "play", from ludere, "to play"). The Dictionary of Music and Musicians notes Henry Smart, Joseph André, and Christian Heinrich Rinck occasionally employing it.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Afterpiece” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.