Fantasias

A fantasia is a musical composition with its roots in the art of improvisation. Because of this, the fantasia, like the impromptu, seldom follows the textbook rules of any strict musical form. The term was first applied to music during the 16th century, at first to refer to the imaginative musical "idea" rather than to a particular compositional genre. Fantasias peaked in the 19th century during the romantic era with the great pianists and composers Chopin, Liszt, Saint-Saëns and Schumann. The free form of the fantasia made it particularly attractive, as it allowed romantic virtuosity to flourish in a unconstrained way.