pizzicato
/ˌpɪtsɪˈkɑːtəʊ
/Music
adverb
(Often as a direction) plucking the strings of a violin or other stringed instrument with one’s finger.Bassists should also include four 2-octave major scales and four 2-octave minor scales; two of each should be played arco, two of each should be played pizzicato.
adjective
Performed pizzicato: an inspired pizzicato movement by the Philharmonic strings...
- The song was difficult to perform, with complicated pizzicato parts and arpeggios, requiring swift and flexible movements.
- The first movement's imitations came alive and the pizzicato second movement was coloured with delicate charm.
- The slow movement ‘Aria,’ finely adumbrated by pizzicato bass at the scherzo's end, is a grave conversation among the string sections and their principals.
noun (plural pizzicatos or pizzicati /ˌpɪtsɪˈkɑːti/) [mass noun]
1The technique of playing pizzicato.Many of the most demanding techniques of the present-day violinist are associated primarily with him, including ‘ricochet’ bowing, left-hand pizzicato, and double-stop harmonics....
- The orchestration is again brilliant, with particularly effective use of trumpets, pizzicato, string moto perpetuo, harp, and glockenspiel.
- For example, in the A-minor concerto, the contrasting use of pizzicato versus arco with the same thematic material is a happy surprise, guaranteed to raise a smile.
1.1 [count noun] A note or passage played pizzicato.A whirlwind of a third movement, with its Bartók pizzicati, brought something of the sound world of the last movement of the Barber Violin Concerto....
- These elements were even more evocatively combined in the especially atmospheric penultimate song, ‘After a hundred years’, where the mellifluous voice was enveloped by the piano's sustained octaves and fifths and string pizzicati.
- I would disapprove only of the needlessly dry string pizzicatos at the first suggestion of the variations' sicilienne-like theme.
Origin
Italian, literally 'pinched, twitched', past participle of pizzicare, based on pizza 'point, edge'.