grandiosoadj.n.adv.

1787 G. Greive tr. F. J. de Chastellux Trav. N.-Amer. I. 446 I regret that Salvator Rosa..never saw the majestic and truly grandioso picture [Fr. le tableau imposant & vraiment grandioso] a deep valley here affords.

1809 Lit. Panorama Dec. 433 The air of mystery which he affected, the grandioso style of his descriptions..were calculated to rouze the attention of those who knew that he really had travelled.

1836 C. C. Bury Devoted I. iii. 25 One jingled on a guitar, and the other sang in a grandioso style.

1898 Music Feb. 403 The next stanza starts more quietly again, and ends in a grandioso manner.

1945 A. Robertson Dvořák xiv. 115 The first subject..carries its grandioso marking without any of the vulgar strutting which disfigures a similar movement in the Liszt Concerto.

1989 Financial Times 21 Jan. ii. p. xx/8 The great beauty of Morris's legato singing, which survives the most grandioso patches unscathed.

2006 Evening Herald (Plymouth) (Nexis) 31 Oct. 27 To allow strings and piano to combine as effectively in the pianissimo moments, as in the grandioso climaxes.

1816 Monthly Mag. 42 137/2 In theatrical music the tragic holds the first rank, because it is the most susceptible of the grandioso.

1828 L. Simond Tour Italy & Sicily 219 Michel Angelo knew the rule, and used it liberally; in it lies much of the secret of his grandioso.

1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. 391 Horse is a term of derision where an officer assumes the grandioso, demanding honour where honour is not his due.

2009 D. L. Jones Amazing Adventures Bradley Baker xxv. 211 Their entourage quickly followed them, as Bradley and Musgrove deliberated the grandioso of the event.

1914 Kinetogram 1 May 16/1 Crescendo gradually into a grandioso.

1976 Gramophone Feb. 1337/3 The grandioso is pressed ahead with crisp dotting, the unashamed slowing for the horn solo clearly showing in advance what the soloist intends.

2007 A. Blatter Revisiting Music Theory v. 204 The Sousa march Stars and Stripes Forever displays this complex sort of texture at the end of the Grandioso.

1829 C. A. Southey in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Jan. 19 Be cautious how you make pretence To pose him with superior sense, Or airs of calm indifference, Play ‘grandioso’.

1876 J. Stainer & W. A. Barrett Dict. Musical Terms 199/2 Grandioso (Italian), grand, in a lofty manner.

1902 Arthur Mees Programs 11 62 With this noble music, played grandioso, is combined the motto phrase..jubilantly vociferated by the brass instruments.

1963 Notes 20 554/1 The editor's suggestion of ‘grandioso’..makes it difficult for the violinist to hold his own.

2005 D. McVeagh Gerald Finzi 161 Finzi's distrust of virtuosity..shows, for instance, in the need for the direction grandioso for the final peroration.