canzonetta

/ ˌkænzəˈnɛt, ˌkænzəˈnɛtə /

noun

1. a short cheerful or lively song, typically of the 16th to 18th centuries

Word History and Origins

Origin of canzonetta¹

C16: Italian canzonetta, diminutive of _canzone

Example Sentences

This led to a Tarquinio Merula canzonetta for soprano and lute.

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Darting between the late 20th century and the early Baroque, they perform Alvin Lucier’s “Music for Piano With Amplified Sonorous Vessels,” Tarquinio Merula’s “Canzonetta spirituale sopra alla nanna,” Galina Ustvolskaya’s Symphony No. 5, Alessandro Piccinini’s “Toccata cromatica” and Salvatore Sciarrino’s “Infinito Nero” — a 20th-century setting for the words of a 17th-century mystic’s visions.

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The Canzonetta’s sweet little tune is whispered over the strings, a dry and distant voice from beyond the steppes.

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But after a relatively bland canzonetta, she kicked up her heels in the finale, gamboling through the virtuoso licks and getting down and dirty in the peasant dance sections.

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No matter how often my sister and I tried to replace it with “Disco Fever,” the only cool tape we had, it was Mr. Heifetz’s Canzonetta from Tchaikovsky and Allegro molto vivace section in the Mendelssohn that I remember to this day.

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