musica reservata
/ˌmjuːzɪkə ˌrɛzəˈvɑːtə/Music
noun
A style of 16th-cent. music characterized by heightened expressiveness, usually employing mannerist and chromatic techniques to intensify the imagery and emotion of the words in singing.
- The precise meaning of reservata here has divided musicologists. Some have supposed it to imply a reserved or restrained compositional technique, characterized by simplicity, clarity, and balance. However, references to musica reservata in 16th-cent. treatises do not bear this out, and it seems more likely that reservata referred not to the style itself but to the fact that the music was reserved for a particular connoisseur audience..
Origin
1940s; earliest use found in Willi Apel (b. 1893). From post-classical Latin musica reservata from classical Latin mūsica + reservāta, feminine of reservātus, past participle of reservāre.