Scherzo for Today is a short two-minute piece composed in 1985 by John Williams

John Williams

John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...

 for use as the closing theme of NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

's The Today Show, and was used until 1990. Like most scherzi, it is light and upbeat, and utilizes ternary

Ternary form

Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form, usually schematicized as A-B-A. The first and third parts are musically identical, or very nearly so, while the second part in some way provides a contrast with them...

 or "ABA" form. The "A" theme, carried by the strings, is rather jumpy and loud, with the brass

Brass

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...

serving as a raucous accompaniment, and the "B" theme, the theme of The Today Show, is smoother and more melodic.

Scherzo for Today was introduced in tandem with several other new themes for NBC, all penned by Williams. The new music gave the program a distinctly modern and refined look. The second theme is still widely recognizable as the theme of The Today Show.