Music Theory – Performance Directions
Hi guys,
With all the exams coming up I decided to post a few performance directions. I hope this helps 🙂
Grade 1 theory Italian terms
This page contains the main Italian musical terms needed for grade 1 theory. Pupils are required to have memorised the English translations of the Italian terms.
| accelerando / accel. | gradually getting quicker |
| adagio | slow |
| allegretto | fairly quick (but not as quick as allegro) |
| allegro | quick |
| andante | at a medium (walking) speed |
| cantabile | in a singing style |
| crescendo / cresc. / | gradually getting louder |
| da capo / D.C. | repeat from the beginning |
| dal segno / D.S. | repeat from the sign |
| decrescendo / decresc. | gradually getting quieter |
| diminuendo / dim. / | gradually getting quieter |
| fine | the end |
| / forte | loud |
| / fortissimo | very loud |
| legato | smoothly |
| lento | slow |
| mezzo | half |
| / mezzo forte | moderately loud |
| / mezzo piano | moderately quiet |
| moderato | moderately |
| / piano | quiet |
| / pianissimo | very quiet |
| poco | a little |
| rallentando / rall. | gradually getting slower |
| ritardando / rit. | gradually getting slower |
| ritenuto / rit. | held back |
| staccato / stacc. | detached |
| tempo | speed, time (a tempo: in time) |
| 8va | octave |
| play an octave higher NB va may be omitted |
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| play an octave lower NB vb may be omitted or even replaced with va |
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| pause on the note | |
| 72 crochet beats in a minute | |
| accent (placed over or under a note) | |
| slur (joining two different notes) | |
| dot over / under note = staccato | |
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repeat marks – at the second sign go back to the first sign and repeat the music from there (if the first sign is missed out, repeat from the beginning) |
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