Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In music, expressive: noting a passage to be rendered with ardent expression.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Mus.) With expression.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb Music. The notation indicating to play in an expressive manner. Expressively.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Borrowed from Italian espressivo

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Examples

  • Beethoven is the only composer in history who writes first espressivo [with expression] and then a tempo [resume the tempo]—it's in his Piano Sonata, Opus 109.

    Vienna's Classical Iconoclast Stuart Isacoff 2011

  • In the Adagio espressivo, Beermann is very expressive indeed, but a bit fast – and his reading of the finale is very spirited and fleet-footed.

    Schumann on CD Mark J. Estren 2010

  • Steep Steps, for bass clarinet, plays the timbral angle for humor, staccato Raymond-Scott machinery in the bass against the unlikely espressivo of the instrument's treble, ending with a big-band saxophone-like wail of clarino; Brent Besner hit it all with character and flair.

    Archive 2008-07-01 Matthew Guerrieri 2008

  • Steep Steps, for bass clarinet, plays the timbral angle for humor, staccato Raymond-Scott machinery in the bass against the unlikely espressivo of the instrument's treble, ending with a big-band saxophone-like wail of clarino; Brent Besner hit it all with character and flair.

    Magna Carter (7): Either/Or Matthew Guerrieri 2008

  • In the Adagio espressivo, Beermann is very expressive indeed, but a bit fast – and his reading of the finale is very spirited and fleet-footed.

    Schumann on CD Mark J. Estren 2010

  • ‘Adagio molto espressivo, sempre legato,’ she read next.

    The Wrong Box 2004

  • We rumbled _andante espressivo_ over the hexagonal cobbles of the Chaussée d'Arsenic, crossed the mauve canal and bent under the hanging cliffs of the cheese quarries.

    Shandygaff Christopher Morley 1923

  • 'Adagio molto espressivo, sempre legato,' she read next.

    The Wrong Box Robert Louis Stevenson 1872

  • The young lady not only glided over these difficulties with ease and grace, but also brought out the _espressivo_ so necessary for the effective rendition of this division.

    Music and Some Highly Musical People James M. Trotter 1867

  • Trovatore, 'is a fine composition abounding in _espressivo_ and _bravura_ passages: the compass is also extensive, requiring great range for a baritone voice.

    Music and Some Highly Musical People James M. Trotter 1867

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