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I’m glad to announce that my video Italian for Musicians Part 1 - Tempo Markings is now available on YouTube

Two more videos will follow at 2-week intervals, about Dynamics and Expression & Articulation. I did the writing and video editing, while my friend Anna is the face and voice of our channel.

Of course many of these words have become part of the English language - even I invariably pronunce “tempo” with an English accent! But I thought it would be interesting to provide the correct Italian pronunciation and explain the literal meaning of each word. I also provide examples with music & score - all from piano music! I just realised that



We put a lot of work in this channel and I really hope that it will grow, but it’s ad-free and we don’t sell anything, so I hope you won’t mind this bit of self-promotion.

I hope you’ll like it!

Excellent - very informative. I loved the minimalistic aspect which makes it look very professional (as well as the colour coordination). Great selection of music too and the editing was great

Grazie grazie grazie!

And thank you for leaving a comment on YouTube, it really means a lot. It was indeed a lot of work but I enjoyed every minute! Now I have to do the editing for episodes 2 & 3. Finding the examples is the most time-consuming part.

Good stuff, good initiative! Keep 'em coming, please!

Nice work! I like it, and I'll point my students at it.

...and a suggestion: Your Lento example also has the marking "a piacere". Working, as I have, with many singers, "a piacere", at least in my experience, involves being free with the tempo - some notes faster, some notes, slower --- sort of rubato on steroids. Or perhaps I've got "a piacere" wrong. In any event, with the idea of keeping things simple, I'd look for a Lento example that didn't include that marking.

Thanks! You're absolutely right about "a piacere". I actually thought that adding examples with several markings could make things more interesting - other scores that I included have a lot of words all together. But I can see how it can become confusing! I'll keep your suggestion in mind for the next videos.

Great video. The explanations, examples and music makes it much easier to remember. And I'd rather watch this video multiple times, than look at a boring list. Looking forward to more of these

This video is very well done and surely helpful to many, not only for the definitions given but also for the Italian pronunciation. The video presentation is clear, concise, professional and straightforward.

The only definition I quibble with is that given for "sostenuto." I agree that it means sustained and often a very legato style of playing (as in the opening of the Beethoven, Op. 27, No. 2), but every definition of the term that I have read (Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Norton Dictionary of Music, Wikipedia, etc., etc.) prescribes a slight slowing of the tempo. The video suggests (at about 6.25), to the contrary, that it means "slightly quicker, slightly faster" tempo. When the term "sostenuto" occurs within a piece rather than at the beginning, it means a slight slowing of the tempo, slghtly extending the value of the notes, not "slightly faster" as the video suggests. At least, that's what all the evidence and examples I have seen suggest or dictate.

Does not the meaning of the word: "sustained" indicate a slowing rather than a quickening of the tempo?

Otherwise, very well done. Thank you.

Regards,

Thanks BruceD!

I'm afraid you're right about "sostenuto" - here's an instance where the actual meaning of the word gives the wrong idea: in Italian we say "velocità sostenuta" to indicate a high speed. To me, Beethoven's Adagio sostenuto in the Moonlight sonata gives the impression of a faster tempo than Adagio, a steady pace that never slows down and is almost ostinato. It's in cut time, too! But since "sostenuto" as an articulation marking requires to hold the notes (like tenuto), I guess it ended up meaning the opposite thing, a slowing down. Sorry about that! I'll add a note about it.

By the way, has anyone read an old book titled "Introducing Music" by Otto Karolyi? I remember buying the Italian edition, very appropriately named "La grammatica della musica" (Music's grammar), many years ago when I was not even playing any instrument. It's very concise and I loved it. I just noticed that in the English version, available on Google Books, the author provides a translation for each Italian word (but no further explanations), while Italian readers are left to their own devices. It's still a great little book, if you can find it somewhere!

And the second episode is now available - pretty straightforward, it took me less than anticipated to wrap it up. Except that YouTube kept bugging me with copyright claims, so I had to replace a few examples! It's a shame because I had found a clip of Rubinstein playing the most delicate pianissimo.

Italian for Musicians Part 2 - Dynamics
Piano, forte, crescendo, diminuendo, sotto voce... in this episode we talk about dynamics in music: loud, soft, and everything in between.



The next and final video about expression & articulation will take me 2 weeks to edit, for sure, so it should be out on February 13.

I'll be very grateful if you could take the time to leave us a comment in YouTube! Thanks!