Most Interesting Italian Music Terms You Have Come Across

[allegroamabile]

So which ones have really caught your eye? These can include the whole title of a heading. Another thing you can do is list the piece that features those terms.

Allegro amabile: Brahms- Violin Sonata No. 2 (first movement); Brahms- Clarinet Sonata No. 2 (first movement)
Lento lugubre: Tchaikovsky- Francesca da Rimini (the beginning); Tchaikovsky- Manfred Symphony (first movement)
Presto, senza battuto: Barber- Symphony No. 2 (third movement)
Allegro giusto, nel modo russico, senza allegrezza, ma poco sostenuto: Mussorgsky- Pictures at an Exhibition (first Promenade)
Moderato nobile: Korngold- Violin Concerto (first movement)

That's a start. I'll think of more later.

[steltz]

First, allegroamabile, I think it's giusto, not guisto.

But second, here's one I've never been sure was real, so maybe some of our members who speak native Italian can tell me.

Ravvivando

Comes up in Gerald Finzi's Five Bagatelles, and one other piece that I can't think of, but was also by a British composer. It is a type of accelerando (i.e. reviving), but I've never seen an Italian composer use it.

Is it real?

[allegroamabile]

Well, it is definitely in my copy of the Finzi, the Prelude to be more specific.

[Leonard Vertighel]

First, allegroamabile, I think it's giusto, not guisto.

Correct. The "gi" stands for a sound similar to the "J" in "John".

Ravvivando

Is it real?

It's certainly a real Italian word, to be specific the gerund of ravvivare "to revive", "to enliven", etc.

[steltz]

Thanks! Always wondered, because I had only seen it used by English composers.

[allegroamabile]

Presto in moto perpetuo: Barber- Violin Concerto, Op. 14 (third movement)
Presto non assai, ma con sentimento: Brahms- Clarinet Quintet, Op. 115 (third movement)
Allegro dolente: Reger- Clarinet Sonata No. 2 (first movement)
Allegro affabile: Reger- Clarinet Sonata No. 2 (fourth movement)
Allegro affanato: Reger- Clarinet Sonata No. 1 (first movement)
Adagio affettuoso: Brahms- Cello Sonata No. 2 (second movement)

translations
affettuoso= affectionate
dolente= sad
in moto perpetuo= in perpetual motion
non assai= not very
ma con sentimento= but with feeling
affabile= friendly

[SeanMartin]

Ravvivando (I think, I'm not 100% sure) means to play "as if you're behind the wheel of a 65 Mustang on a five mile straightaway".

But that's just a guess.

[Niels]

'Sopra' in the second Hungarian Rhapsody.
I still don't know what they mean with it.

[jsnfmn]

My favorites thus far, by coincidence both Scandinavians:

Sibelius 2, Mov III: Lento e suave
Nielsen 1, Mov I: Allegro orgoglioso

[allegroamabile]

Allegro guerriero: Bruch- Scottish Fantasy (fifth movement)

guerriero= warlike

I don't agree with the fifth movement of Bruch's Scottish Fantasy being warlike.

more translations

amabile= lovable

senza= without

battuto= beaten

nobile= noble

lugubre= gloomy

[wurlitzer153]

This one's not Italian, but I've heard it come up once or twice in fiddle music tempos - "Threshing Speed"

This video pretty much sums it up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTUicTrSBOc

[Deinonychus]

travolgente: used several times by Ludovico Einaudi, though I've never seen it anywhere else.
I asked an Italian friend what it meant and she described along the lines of 'running away with the overwhelming goodness of it all'

inaferando: in the first of ???????'s 2 poèmes
not a real italian word, and no one really knows what he meant by it

precipitevolissimevolmente: never seen this actually used, but according to the Guinness book of records its the longest word in the Italian language, and I have always wanted to write a piece with it. It means as fast as possible

[allegroamabile]

precipitevolissimevolmente: never seen this actually used, but according to the Guinness book of records its the longest word in the Italian language, and I have always wanted to write a piece with it. It means as fast as possible

I have heard that Robert Schumann wrote a piano piece with the directions "as fast as possible" in German (I unfortunately do not know the translation). Later on in the same movement, it says to play even faster.

[sbeckmesser]

The relatively common term "prestissimo" essentially means as fast as possible. Mozart, for one, liked to write music that is to be performed extremely quickly. The finales of the serenade K.203 (prestissimo) and the Haffner symphony (presto) are standout examples. (Speaking from experience, the latter is particularly exhausting for the violins.) And he seemed to love a flurry of notes to bring an end to an opera, such as in the closing moments of the Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte, which I believe should be performed as fast as possible.

I remember Aaron Copland mentioning a pop composer who was astounded at his (Copland's) ability to write fast music. Come to think of it, pop music doesn't really have fast music, in the classical sense. It does have active music, which is different.

--Sixtus

[vinteuil]

'Sopra' in the second Hungarian Rhapsody.
I still don't know what they mean with it.

It refers to how one hand is positioned over the other.
Scorrevole is mine (Elliot Carter!)