Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Cadenza
Ca-den′za
,Noun.
[It.]
(Mus.)
A parenthetic flourish or flight of ornament in the course of a piece, commonly just before the final cadence.
Webster 1828 Edition
Cadenza
CADENZA
,Noun.
Definition 2024
cadenza
cadenza
English
Noun
cadenza (plural cadenzas or cadenze)
- (music) A part of a piece of music, such as a concerto, that is very decorative and is played by a single musician.
- 1993, John Banville, Ghosts
- Yes, laugh, as I want to laugh for instance in the concert hall when the orchestra trundles to a stop and the virtuoso at his piano, hunched like a demented vet before the bared teeth of this enormous black beast of sound, lifts up deliquescent hands and prepares to plunge into the cadenza.
- 1993, John Banville, Ghosts
Translations
decorative solo piece of music
Italian
Etymology
From Vulgar Latin *cadentia, from Latin cadēns, present participle of cadō (“to fall”).
Noun
cadenza f (plural cadenze)
Verb
cadenza