Klarinet Archive - Posting 000992.txt from 2001/01

From: "Karl Krelove" <karlkrelove@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] lento vs. adagio
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 07:00:00 -0500

> I checked my Italian dictionary for clues here. "Adagio" seems to have the
> connotation of slowly as in carefully or leisurely, while "Lento" appears
> to be somewhat simpler -- slowly. I think perhaps that the difference is
> not so much in tempo, but as you point out, in affect. In the end of the
> day you would end up thinking about how to play in a careful or leisurely
> or relaxed way, versus just slowly.
>
The fact that there isn't a deluge of either concurring or differing
opinions about this probably shows that in _practice_ there is no real
difference between adagio and lento. In the everyday musical world, you
would take the meaning of either as "slowly" and find the mood and other
needed details of "interpretation" from other elements of the music.
Whatever the subtle shadings are to a native-speaking Italian (as reflected
in those dictionaries), musicians using these terms for musical purposes
don't, in my own experience, treat these as being different in themselves.

FWIW, my 1973 edition of Harvard Dictionary of Music (which is probably more
reflective of accepted musical usage than a regular dictionary) says both
mean slow, also that adagio means "lit., at ease"). I doubt if non-Italians
for the most part would either know that or observe it in applying adagio to
a piece of slow music.

Karl

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org