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- parlando or parlante:
like speech, enunciated
- Partitur (Ger):
full orchestral score
- passionato: passionately
- pastorale: in a pastoral style,
peaceful and simple
- pausa: rest
- pedale or ped:
In piano scores, this instructs the player to press the damper pedal to
sustain the note or chord being played. The player may be instructed to
release the pedal with an asterisk marking (*). In organ scores, it tells
the organist that a section is to be performed on the bass
pedalboard with the feet.
- penseroso: thoughtfully,
meditatively
- perdendosi: dying away; decrease
in dynamics, perhaps also in tempo
- pesante: heavy, ponderous
- peu à peu (Fr):
little by little
- pianissimo or pp :
very gently; i.e., perform very softly, even softer than piano.
This convention can be extended; the more ps
that are written, the softer the composer wants the musician to play or
sing, thus ppp (pianississimo)
would be softer than pp.
Dynamics in a piece should be interpreted relative to the other dynamics in
the same piece. For example, pp should
be executed as softly as possible, but if ppp is
found later in the piece, pp should
be markedly louder than ppp.
More than three ps (ppp)
or three fs (fff)
are uncommon.
- piano or p (usually):
gently; i.e., played or sung softly (see dynamics)
- piano-vocal score: the same as a vocal
score, a piano arrangement along with the vocal parts of an opera, cantata,
or similar
- piacevole: pleasant
- piangevole: plaintive
- più: more; see mosso for
an example
- pizzicato: pinched, plucked; i.e.,
in music for bowed strings, plucked with the fingers as opposed to played
with the bow; compare arco (in
this list), which is inserted to cancel a pizzicato instruction
- pochettino or poch.:
very little
- poco: a little, as in poco
più allegro (a little faster)
- poco a poco: little by little
- poetico: poetic discourse
- poi: then, indicating a subsequent
instruction in a sequence; diminuendo
poi subito fortissimo, for example: getting softer then suddenly very
loud
- portamento: carrying; i.e., 1.
generally, sliding in pitch from one note to another, usually pausing just
above or below the final pitch, then sliding quickly to that pitch. If no
pause is executed, then it is a basic glissando; or 2. in piano music, an articulation between legatoand staccato,
like portato, in this list
- portato or loure:
carried; i.e., non-legato, but not as detached as staccato (same asportamento [2],
in this list)
- posato: settled
- potpourri or pot-pourri (Fr):
potpourri (as used in other senses in English); i.e., a kind of musical form
structured as ABCDEF... etc.; the same as medley or,
sometimes,fantasia
- precipitato: precipitately
- prelude or prélude (Fr):
a musical introduction to subsequent movements during theBaroque era (1600's/17th
century). It can also be a movement in its own right, which was more common
in the Romantic era (mid
1700's/18th century)
- prestissimo: extremely quickly, as
fast as possible
- presto: very quickly
- prima volta: the first time; for
example prima volta senza
accompagnamento (the first
time without accompaniment)
- primo or prima (the
feminine form): first
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