parlandoadv.adj.n.
/pɑːˈlandəʊ/, U.S. /pɑrˈlændoʊ/ Music.
A. adv.
In an expressive or declamatory manner.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > written or printed music > directions > [adverb] > for other expression
grave1683
cantabile1724
maestoso1724
staccato1724
legato1740
soavemente1740
tenuto1762
amoroso?1765
spiritoso1767
pomposo1786
scherzando1786
strepitoso1801
grazioso1806
mesto1806
risoluto1817
tripsomely1819
alla marcia1823
energico1824
flautando1825
giocoso1828
grandioso1829
religioso1829
largamente1837
marcato1840
flautato1842
leggiero1851
tranquillo1854
appassionato1857
lamentoso1876
misterioso1876
parlando1876
pesante1876
scherzandissimo1876
affettuoso1879
arioso1879
quasi parlato1908
martellato1928
agitato1944
soave1959
1876 J. Stainer & W. A. Barrett Dict. Musical Terms 342/2 Parlando, Parlante (It.), in a declamatory manner, as if speaking.
1982 A. Burgess End of World News 183 He sings, parlando, variations on words he has sung.
B. adj.
Of a passage or piece of music: played or sung ‘as if speaking’; expressive or declamatory in the manner of speech.
ΚΠ
1930 Time & Tide 7 June 745/1 Against a dissonant pianoforte accompaniment, the voice disclaims monotonously in the ‘parlando’ style.
1955 Times 27 May 13/4 Miss Nancy Evans sang ‘The Water Mill’ too slowly and with too much tone—this is a parlando song.
1989 P. van der Merwe Origins Pop. Style (1992) xvii. 146 Sometimes the singer will begin a song in a speaking tone, and after a few words glide into song. Often a parlando verse will be contrasted with a cantabile refrain.
2000 N.Y. Times Mag. 19 Nov. ii. 42/5 They know hundreds of songs and deliver them in the parlando style many of them require, as opposed to the operatic blastings we've become accustomed to.
C. n.
This style; (also) a composition or performance delivered in this manner.
ΚΠ
1944 W. Apel Harvard Dict. Music 554/1 Parlando occurs particularly in rapid tempo when the syllables of the text change with every note... In connection with instrumental music, parlando (parlante) calls for an expressive declamation, suggestive of speech or song.
1960 Times 23 May 16/7 A..lyrical setting of the Bible story, involving..choral parlando.
1970 Daily Tel. 28 Sept. 11/3 A habit, during less important recitative-like passages, of lapsing occasionally into a toneless parlando of too vaguely defined pitch.
1999 BBC Music Mag. Apr. 72/1 That still leaves an awful lot of lines to get through, and for the most part Previn seems content just to let them pour out in a continuous parlando.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adv.adj.n.1876