Chapter 31: Some Commonly Used Musical Terms
or, What We Do When We See Them
or, A Tribute to Mrs. Birdsong
Anisa Schardl
- Grave: kind of slow.
- Largo: sort of slow.
- Adagio: slowish.
- Andante: mediumish.
- Moderato: running tempo.
- Allegretto: really, really fast.
- Allegro: really, really, really fast.
- Vivace: unbearably fast.
- Presto: impossibly fast.
- Prestissimo: the universe collapses.
- animato: look up or look stupid
- maestoso: like the queen's about to walk in.
- religioso: without cussing.
- risoluto: as if you knew what you were doing.
- accelerando: look up or look stupid.
- espressivo: phrasiologically.
- con forza: big big.
- con moto: with peaches.
- poco: invariably something you are told to exaggerate.
- rallentando: look up or look stupid.
- tremolo: as in (at the end of Happy Birthday) and many more...
- sforzando: see how high you can make your stand partner jump.
- simile: a comparison using like or as.
- ritard or ritardando: look up or look stupid.
- tempo: fast.
- key signature: indicates which notes you play out of tune.
- time signature: mysterious numbers at the beginning of a piece that
mean about as much as your computer saying error 11 has occurred.
- cantabile: sing this passage.
- decani: the voice part that sings higher when it's not lower.
- cantoris: the voice part that sings lower when it's not higher.
- fermata: look up or look stupid.
- violoncello solo: this passage will be absolutely beautiful.
- violin solo: this passage would be absolutely beautiful if a cello
were playing it.
- mysterioso: like the time signature.
- Bartók: a really cool guy.
- Vaughn Williams: a British guy.
- Mozart: OOTPWHAPOHOD.*
- Dvorák: an unpronounceable (not to mention unspellable) guy.
- dolce: think lollipop.
- pizzicato: think pizza.
- rest: put your head down on your desk and be quiet until everyone
has finished his test.
- D.C. al Fine, D.S. al Coda, etc: drop your pencil and pick it up
really slowly until you can figure out where everyone is.
*OOTPWHAPOHOD means one of those people who has a premonition of his own
death.
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