maestosoadv.n.adj.

1724 Short Explic. Foreign Words Musick Bks. 45 Maestoso, or Maestuoso, is to play with Majesty, Pomp, and Grandure, and consequently Slow, nevertheless with strength and firmness of hand.

1740 J. Grassineau tr. S. De Brossard Musical Dict. 126 Maestoso, or Maestuoso, intimates to play with grandeur, and consequently slow, but yet with strength and firmness.

1815 European Mag. 68 154/2 Var. 8 (Maestoso) in minor.

1816 J. Wolcot Wks. P. Pindar II. 18 Dis Mara, too, and Billington, do know—Allegro, quick; adagio, be de slow: Pomposo, dat be manner make de roar: Maestoso, dat be grand and nobel ting, Mush like de voice of emperor, or de king.

1833 Lady's Bk. July 58 The alternations of maestoso and presto prestissimo, were continued for some time.

1880 G. Grove Dict. Music II. 198/2 Every Csárdás consists of two movements,—a ‘Lassu’, or slow movement, andante maestoso, and a ‘Friss’, or ‘quickstep’, allegro vivace.

1949 H. Wilcox Six Moons in Sulawesi vii. 147 Saleko, Pong' Rantebambam's superb black and white bull, came down the path... While he made his way southwards, maestoso, the fat black bull Kandilli, with Timbo up, advanced from the opposite direction.

1975 Listener 2 Jan. 16/1 I saw Chu Chin Chow four times... Oscar Asche was the great actor-manager who put the show on at His Majesty's Theatre, in London, and himself sang the name-part, maestoso—though his own recording would be a bit too scratchy to listen to now.

1991 Gramophone Jan. 1390/1 The opening of the A minor Sonata is superbly realized, properly maestoso, with fierce, stinging attack and a masterly control of Mozart's long, highly charged paragraphs.

1794 T. Holcroft Adventures Hugh Trevor II. iv. 47 In the bravura she astonished! in the cantabile she charmed; her maëstoso was inimitable! and her adagios! Oh! they were ravishing! killing.

1851 E. S. Wortley Trav. in U.S. I. xxii. 252 The basses and trebles, and flats and sharps, and livelys and maestosos, were jumbled together into one most horrible hash and clash of music.

1889 G. B. Shaw in Star 5 Apr. 4/2 The maestoso which closes that work is a masterpiece of harmonic structure.

1966 E. R. Reilly tr. J. J. Quantz On playing Flute xvii. 231 A Maestoso, Pomposo, Affetuoso, or Adagio spiritoso must be played seriously, and with a rather heavy and sharp stroke.

1992 Gramophone (BNC) June 44 The finale is particularly notable for the rapture of its luminous string transformation (dolcissimo) in the central maestoso.

1863 Notes & Queries 16 June 473/1 Oberon's words..will be found introduced to a largo maestoso movement by Sir H. Bishop.

1873 N. Amer. Rev. July 249 The declamation is fine and apt; the rhythm powerful and flowing, sustaining its maestoso character to the end.

1992 Gramophone Jan. 59/3 Here..the first movement has little of the maestoso element that most pianists and conductors find in it.