Music Theory – Grade 2, pt 5

Welcome back to music theory grade 2, this time we're going to be looking at the musical terms and performance directions you'll need for the grade. As with the grade 1 directions, I'm sorry to say that there are no shortcuts to memorizing these so re-reading will be required. Being Italian may be an advantage!

Please review grade 1 part 4 here for the musical terms we looked at there, and will expand upon below. You'll no doubt be delighted to hear that as with grade 1, all the grade 2 terms you need to know are in Italian:

a - at, to, by, for, in, in the style of
al, alla - to the, in the manner of (alla macia: in the style of a march)
allargando - broadening (getting slower and possibly louder)
andantino - slightly faster than Andante (may also mean slightly slower)
assai - very
con, col - with
dolce - sweet
e, ed - and
expressivo - expressive
fp - fortepiano, loud and then immediately soft
giocoso - playful, merry
grave - very slow, solemn
grazioso - graceful
larghetto - rather slow (but not as slow as largo)
largo - slow, stately
ma - but
maestoso - majestic
meno - less
molto - very, much
mosso, moto - movement
non - not
piu - more
presto - fast (faster than allegro)
senza - without
sf, sfz - sforzando – forced, accented
simile (sim.) - in the same way
sostenuto - sustained
tenuto - held
troppo - too much
vivace, vivo - lively, quick

And that, together with the preceding four parts, completes grade 2 music theory. As ever, review the 5 parts together, remember to refer back to grade 1 material and look at sheet music whenever.

For an index of previous articles, click here.