Musical Forms
| A cappella | in chapel style | Sung with total no instrumental accompaniment |
| Aria | air | A song, esp. one from an opera |
| Arietta | little air | A short or light aria |
| Ballabile | danceable | (song) to be danced to |
| Battaglia | battle | An instrumental or vocal piece suggesting a battle |
| Bergamasca | from Bergamo | A peasant dance from Bergamo |
| Burletta | a little joke | A light comic or farcical opera |
| Cadenza | falling | A florid solo at the end of a performance |
| Cantata | sung | A piece for orchestra and singers |
| Capriccio | caprice | A lively piece of music |
| Coda | tail | The end of a piece |
| Concerto | concert | A work for one or more solo instruments accompanied by an orchestra |
| Concertino | little concert | A short concerto; the solo instrument in a concerto |
| Concerto grosso | big concert | A Baroque form of concerto, with a group of solo instruments |
| Intermezzo | interval | A short connecting instrumental movement |
| Libretto | little book | A work containing the words to an opera, musical, or ballet |
| Opera | work | A drama set to music for singers and instrumentalists |
| Opera buffa | humorous opera | A comic opera |
| Opera seria | serious opera | An opera with a serious, esp. classical theme |
| Sonata | sounded | A composition for one or two instruments in sonata form |
Read more about this topic: Italian Musical Terms Used In English
Famous quotes containing the words musical and/or forms:
“If we cannot sing of faith and triumph, we will sing our despair. We will be that kind of bird. There are day owls, and there are night owls, and each is beautiful and even musical while about its business.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“From the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
—Charles Darwin (1809–1882)