Klarinet Archive - Posting 000428.txt from 2005/03

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] "Leggiero" / "leggero"
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 03:04:19 -0500

Hello all,

So, there's this musical term "leggiero" which means lightly, with ease...

Anyway, I was thinking about this recently and decided to look it up in
my Italian dictionary since some Italian words have a slightly different
meaning in colloquial Italian to what we use them for musically, and
this can give some interesting insights (for example, "rubato" meaning
"stolen" or "robbed").

.... Which is when I found, to my surprise, there is no such word.
Instead Italians use "leggero" (no i). I asked an Italian colleague
about this and he said, "What is this word 'leggiero'? I have never
heard of it before."

So does anyone know the story? I presume "leggiero" is an archaic
spelling/pronunciation that was adopted early on and has persisted
through its continued use by non-Italian composers.

Would be interested to know more....

Cheers,

-- Joe

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