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
Italian
Etymology
From Vulgar Latin *cadentia, from Latin cadēns, present participle of cadō (“to fall”).
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