loosely structured music, often with a dramatic flair and strongly contrasting musical ideas
A single movement work, usually instrumental, which can be based on folk melodies, popular tunes and or a national anthem. Two renowned examples are "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" by Sergei Rachmaninov and "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin.
A free style instrumental piece characterized by dramatic changes in mood.
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. An air of spontaneous inspiration and a sense of improvisation make it freer in form than a set of variations. Sergei Rachmaninoff's set of variations on a theme by Niccolò Paganini are so free in structure that the composer called them a Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.
Rhapsody is an online music service run by Real Networks. Launched in December 2001, Rhapsody was the first music service to offer streaming on-demand access to nearly its entire library of digital music. Downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by Helix, RealNetworks' version of digital rights management.