arpeggiation

[ahr-pej-ee-ey-shuhn]

noun

1. the writing or playing of arpeggios.

Word History and Origins

Origin of arpeggiation¹

First recorded in 1885–90; arpeggi(o) + -ation

Example Sentences

Now he composes his own pieces, often using more arpeggiation, which involves spreading out chords instead of playing them simultaneously.

Read more on Washington Post

It was expressed subtly in the opening of the Brahms, when Ms. Uchida reached the end of her phrase but continued to rock gently in time to the undulating arpeggiation in the strings.

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The repetition and arpeggiation of the G-major suite are often echoed in the music of Philip Glass, but his “Overture to Bach” was instead a sort of tragic aria, based in the relative key of E Minor.

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Temp tracks help to explain why Hollywood scores are too often a lazy Susan of fixed formulas: in fantasy movies, metallic percussion clanging over horns and male choruses in the minor mode; in romantic comedies, a one-handed piano noodling behind a scrim of strings; in period pictures, neo-Baroque arpeggiation in the manner of Philip Glass.

Read more on The New Yorker

Both the Zorn, with its slow-moving melody set against a sustained, deep cello tone and a shofarlike wail from one of the violins, and the Glass, with its dense, contrapuntal arpeggiation, were given concentrated, warm-hued readings.

Read more on New York Times