PPP243: Why does music use so many Italian terms?

1. 1. Guido d’Arezzo (1st century) established an organized way of reading the writing musical notation on a staff of five lines with four spaces in between.

   2. Toward the end of the 16th century, a new form of entertainment was originated in Italy. This new form of entertainment, opera, combined the storytelling of Greek drama with music and visual arts.

   3. Most importantly for us as pianists, the piano was invented in Italy in the early 1700’s.

It makes sense that with so many musical innovations coming from Italy that the earliest composers would either be born in Italy or would go there to study music. It’s no wonder that the Italian language would become a major part of written musical notation and expression.

Many Italian words have become to familiar to us that we forget they are not original to the English language. I already mentioned opera and piano. Interestingly, the word opera literally translated means work or production in plural form. The singular form is opus, another musical word whose origin is easy to forget.

You’ve likely heard someone say, “That is not my forte.” I would say, “Cooking is not my forte.” Cooking has nothing to do with music but you would understand that is it not my strength. In fact, when I teach my students about forte, I use the word strong, like a fort instead of loud.

Tempo is another word that is as comfortable in the English language as in its original Italian. Whether we are musical or not, we know that tempo refers to the rate of speed. When Tracy and I used to watch the BBC’s Sherlock Holmes series I had to turn the captions on because the dialogue went at such a fast tempo!

Here are a few common Italian terms used to describe tempo.

Andante (mm 76-108) (page 6 in the Pianist’s Dictionary) “Steadily moving (walking), literally “going.” The steady quality is more appropriate to the 18th century. Not slow or fast: in between.

Moderato (mm 108-120) (page 114 in the Pianist’s Dictionary) “Moderate tempo”

Allegro (mm 120-168) – (page 5 in the Pianist’s Dictionary) “Cheerful, merry, happy, upbeat, quick, lively, brisk, swift, good humored; a rather fast speed