pizzicato
1
8.9
- noun
- /ˌpɪtsɪˈkɑːtoʊ/
- Specialized
- With an inhale and a nod from the teacher, the students begin to play the scale pizzicato in the rhythm shown on the board.
- play pizzicato
- pizzicato and arco
Examples
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But your pizzicato - we still have to work on it.
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During the rehearsal, the conductor asked the musicians to perform the pizzicato section more softly.
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And if I were to play pizzicato, it'd feel like this.
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The class can play the passage pizzicato and then arco.
Academic text (1996) -
Strings can play pizzicato first and then arco.
Academic text (1996) -
Well, we can play pizzicato, which means we're going to pluck the strings with our fingers.
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The piece began with two members playing ostinato patterns: one playing pizzicato while the other played the bolero rhythm.
Academic text (2015) -
After the pizzicato scale is complete, Bolton removes the magnet that says "pizz" and replaces it with one that says "arco."
Academic text (2013) -
One of the kids was asking him about the pizzicato in the piece they'd practiced, plucking with ice-cream sticky fingers on his beginner's violin.
Fiction book (1994) -
The orchestra played the final piece with a beautiful pizzicato that highlighted the strings' sound.
Surface Forms
Etymology
Pizzicato takes its name from the Italian pizzicare, meaning 'to pinch' or 'to pluck'. Think of a finger 'pinching' a string to make a single plucked note, which is why a pizzicato is a plucked sound or passage.