Mamma Mia! Musica Italiana!

Category: Miscellaneous, Musical Terminology

In preparation for my upcoming trip to Italy, I thought it would be appropriate to teach you some of my extensive Italian vocabulary. Many Italian musical terms are used in musical composition, and in the English language.  In fact, there are SO many Italian words used in musical composition, that in this post, I’m only going to focus on a small subset of them: a few of my favourite words used to describe tempo.  And, oh my goodness, the word “tempo” itself is the first word we will learn!

Tempo

I discussed the use of the word tempo in a previous post. Basically, the word tempo is synonymous with speed. It can be used in a musical context; For example, to describe the speed of a piece of music. However, it can be used outside of the musical context as well, to describe the rate of a repeating event. For example, runners may use the word tempo in the context of describing running pace, or heart rate.

Largo

Largo is a term that you will come across quite often in classical music. Translated literally, it means “broad”. A piece marked Largo will be slow and drawn out.  A piece of music you may want to listen to is the second movement of the New World Symphony by Dvorak. This will give you an idea of what largo is. Actually, you can listen to it here! Yay, don’t you just love the internet?!

Presto

The word brings up imagery of magicians and rabbits popping out of hats… In music, it should bring up the same imagery. OK, maybe slightly different. There are no magicians, and no rabbits. No hats either. Really, all it means in music is VERY FAST. Check out this piece of music and tell me it isn’t presto enough for you!

Rubato

The literal translation is  “robbed time”… Hunh? This is my favourite tempo marking. It means that the music can be free flowing, and doesn’t have to follow a steady and strict rhythm. This means you are free to take some creative liberties with the music. My buddy, Claude used this marking in his music quite often. You may know Claude – he composed the famous piece called “Clair de Lune”, which is marked “tempo rubato” in sections. Great guy.

photo credit: David Paul Ohmer

Lesson 15: Common Musical Dynamic Markings

Category: Lessons, Practice and Performance

We have already had an introduction to musical dynamics in the post Commonly Used Musical Terms. In case you don’t remember, or you are just tuning in, dynamics in music refer to markings that tell the musician how soft or how loud to play the music.  There are many types of dynamic markings, but we will go through some of the more common ones in this lesson.

Crescendo - a crescendo looks like a long V on its side, starting with the small end at the left, and opening up to the right.  It tells the musician to gradually get louder.

Decrescendo - is the opposite of crescendo: A long V on its side, opening to the left.  A decrescendo tells the musician to gradually get softer.

pp – pianissimo.  Very soft.

p – piano. Soft.

mf - mezzo forte.  Moderatley loud.

f – forte.  Loud.

ff – fortissimo. Very loud.

These are the most basic dynamic markings that you should know.  Remember, these markings are not absolute.  You need to interpret how loud or how soft you should play based on the surrounding dynamics.  However, in one piece of music the following is usually true:

Soft pp < p < mf < f < ff Loud

You can interpret this as: pianissimo is softer than piano, which is softer than mezzo forte.  Fortissimo is louder than forte which is louder than mezzo forte.  So mezzo forte can be seen as not too loud, not too soft – right in the middle.  See the worksheet section for worksheets related to this lesson and others.