The musical structure is the same as the minuet, and it is composed of a trilogy with a three-part middle section; However, the unfolding technique often has the nature of dynamic development, and the reappearance part changes a lot. Later, it evolved into an independent instrumental music in the works of Chopin and Brahms. Chopin's four piano scherzos are large in scale and profound in content; Brahms wrote the piano music Scherzo in E flat minor (Op.4). Scherzo is often combined with other instrumental genres, such as the orchestral music Scherzo-Capriccio by Dvorak (Op.66 in D flat major), Scherzo-Waltz by Chabrie, and March and Scherzo by prokofiev. Beethoven first replaced elegant minuets with energetic harmonic fatigue music as a fixed movement in large instrumental suites such as symphonies, sonatas and string quartets. Beethoven not only enriched the expressive force of scherzo, making it a genre that can express various musical images, but also improved scherzo from a dance genre that expresses external images to a dramatic genre that can express psychological phenomena and spiritual realms that change and develop in contradictions and conflicts.

The third movement of the Fifth Symphony is a typical work of dramatic scherzo. This movement carefully depicts the psychological activity process of getting up from doubts and hesitation and strengthening the belief in struggle. The whole movement is divided into three parts: the first part of the music contains three contradictory factors, the first factor shows a calm and thoughtful image, played by bass stringed instruments; The second factor expresses the feelings of confusion and hesitation, played by violin, viola and woodwind instruments; The third factor is the struggle, which is based on the four notes called "Destiny Motive" (this theme runs through the first, third and fourth movements of the whole symphony). Accompanied by stringed instruments, it is strongly played by the horn, and then moved to woodwind instruments and violins. The first part is divided into three rounds by these three factors, alternating with each other, showing inner contradictions. However, in the second round, the calm and thoughtful factors expanded, the factors of confusion and doubt disappeared, and the factors of struggle were strengthened by adding trumpets and timpani, which made them more resolute and powerful. In the third round, the calm and thoughtful factors were followed by the factors of doubt, but they were combined with the factors of struggle at the same time, and gradually became firm, and finally unified into the image of heroic struggle. The music in the second part is dancing. The French musician Berlioz said this piece of music "sounds like a giant elephant jumping with joy". I should say. This is the inner dance, which shows the inner activity and churning inspired by the struggle force. The theme of the second part is developed by imitating polyphony. The melody of the theme is first played by cello and double bass; After six festivals, viola and bassoon imitate this melody; After six bars, the second violin also played an imitated voice; Then, after two bars, the first violin played an imitated voice again. Swing one voice after another, intertwined with each other, forming a torrent of booming sounds. The third part is the reproduction of the first part. This time, a large number of plucked strings were used to play stringed instruments, which not only made them more decisive, but also unified the three factors in rhythm. Finally, in the thunderous rumble of fixed sound effects, the intensity changed from weak to strong, and the tonal color changed from dark to bright. Finally, it changed from C minor to C major, and a powerful victory March played by all instruments was introduced, which was the beginning of the fourth movement. It not only shows the emotion of overcoming doubts and doubts, but also strengthens the belief in struggle, and develops from the belief in struggle to the confidence full of victory. In this symphony, the music of the third movement continuously enters the fourth movement. Beethoven's and Chopin's scherzos all keep the beat of triple time. We can see the inheritance relationship between it and minuet. Scherzo after the mid-19th century often broke the norm of triple beat and dealt with this genre more freely. This kind of scherzo is characterized by its active rhythm and rushing momentum. The third movement of Tchaikovsky's fourth symphony is a scherzo with two hands clapping.

what this movement shows is all kinds of erratic artistic conception produced in imagination. Tchaikovsky explained the contents of this symphony in detail in his letter to Nadezhda von Meek. He said that the third movement "didn't show any definite feelings. It can be said to be a series of fantasies, like an elusive image that comes to mind when you feel a little dizzy after drinking a little wine. My heart is neither happy nor sad, my heart is empty, but my imagination is like a horse out of bondage. I have begun to paint some bizarre pictures, and I don't know why. Suddenly I remembered a drunken farmer and heard a short street song. Where in the distance has passed the ranks of the army, these pictures are incoherent, just like the image that comes to your mind when you are going to sleep. " The three basic themes in this movement are expressed by three different timbres. The first theme describes a trance-like mental state, which is played by a stringed instrument. The second theme describes street songs, which are played by the oboe. The third theme describes the March of the army, which is played by brass instruments. This scherzo consists of three parts: the first part is the presentation, development and reproduction of the first theme; The second part is based on the comparison between the second theme and the third theme. When the second theme appeared again, the melody of street songs played by woodwind instruments was accompanied by brass instruments in the rhythm of March, thus combining the second and third themes at the same time; Then the fragments of the second, third and first theme appeared one after another. The first theme was originally played by stringed instruments, but was played by woodwind instruments with a thump. This piece of music truly depicts the scene where all kinds of impressions are mixed together in the hazy consciousness. The third part is the reproduction of the first part. In the epilogue, the fragments of the first theme are compared in three tonality successively, thus showing the scene where three impressions are intertwined. These three tonalities are F major, D flat major and A major. F major is the tonality of the first theme, D flat major is the tonality of the third theme, and A major is the tonality of the second theme. Although music is only a fragment of the first theme, tonality belongs to three different themes respectively. At the same time of tonality contrast, there is also tone contrast: woodwind instruments belong to the second theme, while stringed instruments belong to the first theme. In this scherzo, the three themes of three images have their own tunes, timbre and tonality. At the end, not only with different melodies, but also with different tonality and timbre, the three themes are mixed and overlapped to express complex psychological and emotional states. The violin and piano music Scherzo-Tarantella by Polish composer wieniawski is also a music with dual genres. Tarantella with 6/8 time was originally a very active dance music, but the music of this piece is dynamic and static, sometimes with the characteristics of dance music, sometimes with the characteristics of songs, sometimes light and sometimes warm, thus showing a humorous interest, so it is called Scherzo-Tarantella.