(MT) Style Marking Lesson

Style Markings

Musical style or expression is the art of playing or singing music with emotional communication. The elements of music that comprise style and expression include dynamic indications, such as forte or piano, phrasing, differing qualities of timbre and articulation, color, intensity, energy and excitement. All of these devices are at the service of the composer's intention and they can best be interpreted by the performer.

A performer aims to elicit responses of sympathetic feeling in the audience, and to excite, calm or otherwise sway the audience's physical and emotional responses. In a great artist, one can feel that it is the soul that is speaking to the audience. In more modest performances, one can sometimes sense the soul of the composer in the absence of a heightened interpretation.

Expression can be closely related to breath, and the voice's natural ability to express feelings, sentiment, deep emotions. Whether these can somehow be categorized is perhaps the realm of academics, who view expression as an element of musical performance which embodies a consistently recognizable emotion, ideally causing a sympathetic emotional response in its listeners.

The components of musical expression continue to be the subject of extensive and unresolved dispute.

Below are musical terms that identify to the performer certain stylistic ways to interpret the music based on Mood, Expression and Techniques. Some of the terms below may be a repetition of the same term used earlier to describe Dynamics, Articulations or Tempo.

Moods

Affettuoso	with feeling	Tenderly
Agitato	agitated	Excited and fast
Animato	animated	Animated
Brillante	brilliant	Brilliant, bright
Bruscamente	brusquely	Brusquely - abruptly
Cantabile	singable	In a singing style
Colossale	colossal	In a fashion which suggests immensity
Comodo	convenient	Comfortably, moderately
Con amore	with love	With love
Con fuoco	with fire	With fiery manner
Con brio	with bright	brightly
Con moto	with movement	With (audible) movement
Con spirito	with spirit	With spirit
Dolce	sweetly	Sweet
Espressivo	expressive	Expressively
Festoso	happy	With happiness
Furioso	furious	With passion
Grazioso	graciously or gracefully	With charm
Lacrimoso	teary	Tearfully, sadly
Maestoso	majestic	Stately
Misterioso	mysterious	Mysteriously, secretively, enigmatic
Pesante	heavy	Heavy, slowly, sadly
Risoluto	resolved	Resolved, decisive
Scherzando	playfully	Playfully
Sotto	subdued	Subdued
Semplicemente	simply	Simply
slancio	passion	Enthusiasm
Vivace	vivacious	Up-tempo

Musical Expression (general)

Molto	very	Used with other terms, such as molto allegro
Assai	very	Used with other terms, such as allegro assai
Più	more	Used with other terms, such as più mosso
Poco	little	"A little". Used with other terms, such as poco diminuendo
poco a poco	little by little	"little by little", "slowly but steadily". Used with other terms, such as poco a poco crescendo
Ma non troppo	but not too much	Used with other terms, such as allegro ma non troppo
Meno	less	Used with other terms, such as meno mosso
Subito	suddenly, quickly	Used with other terms, such as subito fortissimo

Techniques

Altissimo	very high	Very high
Arpeggio	harp-like	A chord with the notes spread out in time
Acciaccatura	crushing	An extra, very fast grace note
Appoggiatura	leaning	A type of ornament
Basso continuo	continuous bass	Continuous bass accompaniment (see figured bass)
A bocca chiusa	mouth closed	Wordless humming in a choral piece
Chiuso	closed	Calls for a horn to be muted by hand
Coll'arco	with the bow	Cancels col legno and pizzicato (in a string passage, arco is usually expected and is not written except at the end of col legno or pizzicato passages)
Colla voce	with the voice	A note to accompanists to play with (in time with) the singer, especially when slowing for textual effect
Col legno	with the wood	Calls for a bowed instrument to be struck with the wood rather than the hair of the bow
Coloratura	coloration	Elaborate ornamentation of a vocal line
Glissando	glide	A sweeping glide from one pitch to another
Legato	tied together	A series of notes played with a smooth connection between them
Con sordino	with mute	Calls for mute to be applied, esp. to string instruments
Senza sordino	without mute	Calls for mute to be removed, esp. from string instruments
Pizzicato	plucked	Calls for a bowed instrument to be plucked with the fingers
Portamento	carrying	A sliding of pitch between two notes
Portato	carried	A style of playing between staccato and legato
Coperti	covered	Of a drum, muted with a cloth
Una corda	one string	With the soft pedal, on a piano
Due corde	two strings	With the soft pedal, on a piano. For why both terms exist, see piano
Tre corde or tutte le corde	Three strings or all the strings	Cancels an una corda
Spiccato	separated	Playing a stringed instrument by bouncing the bow lightly on the strings
Tutti	all	A direction for the entire ensemble to play or sing, rather than a soloist
staccatissimo	very detached	Forcefully exaggerated staccato
Staccato	detached	A form of musical articulation in which notes are distinct and separated from each other by short gaps
Scordatura	mistuning	Alternate tuning (of strings)
vibrato	vibrating	A rapid repetitive variation in the pitch of a tone

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