Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Played by plucking rather than bowing the strings.
- noun A pizzicato note or passage.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In music for stringed instruments of the viol family, noting the manner of playing, or the effect produced, when the strings are plucked or twanged by the finger, as in harp-playing, instead of sounded by means of the bow.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- (Mus.) A direction to violinists to pluck the string with the finger, instead of using the bow. (Abrev. pizz.)
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adverb music An instruction to players of
stringed instruments topluck the strings instead of using thebow . Abbreviation: pizz. - noun music A stretch of music that is played pizzicato
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a note or passage that is played pizzicato
- adjective (of instruments in the violin family) to be plucked with the finger
- adverb with a light plucking staccato sound
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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This mode of playing is called pizzicato or plucking.
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When playing upon a soft combination on the Great, the organist may draw the Swell to Great "pizzicato" coupler.
The Recent Revolution in Organ Building Being an Account of Modern Developments George Laing Miller
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The greenish-yellow hair looked dull gold by lamplight; her eyes gleamed blackly from their blue crystallized lids (the bath of indigo being a stage device known to all devotees of the art), and her dancing, which immediately commenced to her own castanets and a subdued "pizzicato" from the two violins, was original and graceful, and free from any taint of vulgarity.
Ringfield A Novel 1897
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A word that had the audience groaning - except, of course, the symphony team - was "pizzicato"
unknown title 2009
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The second scherzo-like movement had syncopated, imitative strokes between the piano and oboe, with pouncing dissonances and pizzicato obbligati on the strings.
Rodney Punt: World Premiere by Peter Golub at Chamber Music Palisades Rodney Punt 2010
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The second scherzo-like movement had syncopated, imitative strokes between the piano and oboe, with pouncing dissonances and pizzicato obbligati on the strings.
Rodney Punt: World Premiere by Peter Golub at Chamber Music Palisades Rodney Punt 2010
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The pizzicato alone was worth the price of admission but the gorgeous sound of the brass was equally remarkable.
Oh, Vienna 2009
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The second scherzo-like movement had syncopated, imitative strokes between the piano and oboe, with pouncing dissonances and pizzicato obbligati on the strings.
Rodney Punt: World Premiere by Peter Golub at Chamber Music Palisades Rodney Punt 2010
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The second scherzo-like movement had syncopated, imitative strokes between the piano and oboe, with pouncing dissonances and pizzicato obbligati on the strings.
Rodney Punt: World Premiere by Peter Golub at Chamber Music Palisades Rodney Punt 2010
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The second scherzo-like movement had syncopated, imitative strokes between the piano and oboe, with pouncing dissonances and pizzicato obbligati on the strings.
Rodney Punt: World Premiere by Peter Golub at Chamber Music Palisades Rodney Punt 2010
patchouli commented on the word pizzicato
I'm reminded of a teacher I once had. She would utter this word with particular aplomb.
September 2, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word pizzicato
"Stephen walked over to his 'cello and sitting on the stern-window locker he played over the Rakes of Kerry in pizzicato. 'You should hear that at some far grassy crossroads on a fine Beltane night with the fire on the hill and the pipes playing and five fiddles and the young men dancing as though they were possessed and the young women as demure as mice but never missing a step.'"
--Patrick O'Brian, The Nutmeg of Consolation, 261
March 9, 2008