Italian Musical Terms Used In English
A great many musical terms are in Italian. This is because many of the most important early composers from the Renaissance to the Baroque period were Italian, and that period is when numerous musical indications were used extensively for the first time. (See also sheet music.)
Here are some of these expressions:
| Italian term | Literal translation | Definition |
Read more about Italian Musical Terms Used In English: Musical Forms, Musical Instruments, Voices, Tempo, Dynamics - Volume, Moods, Musical Expression (general), Directions, Techniques, Roles, Criticism, Musical Direction
Famous quotes containing the words italian, musical, terms and/or english:
“If the study of his images
Is the study of man, this image of Saturday,
This Italian symbol, this Southern landscape, is like
A waking, as in images we awake,
Within the very object that we seek,
Participants of its being.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Syncopations are no indication of light or trashy music, and to shy bricks at “hateful ragtime” no longer passes for musical culture.”
—Scott Joplin (1868–1917)
“The only freedom I care about is the freedom to do right; the freedom to do wrong I am ready to part with on the cheapest terms to anyone who will take it of me.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“He that seeks trouble never misses.”
—17th-Century English proverb, first collected in George Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs (1640)