concerto

US/kənˈt͡ʃɛɹtoʊ/

nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #8,497 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: concertos

A concerto is a piece for one solo player and a full orchestra. A violin concerto.

The form is a contest and a conversation at once, which is what the Italian name suggests. A concerto is usually in three movements, fast then slow then fast.

Definitions of concerto

1nounconcertoA piece for one solo player and a full orchestra.C1
“She played the same concerto in eleven countries that year.”

concerto is a piece of music.

Where it comes from

Italian concerto comes from concertare, which meant both to contend and to bring into agreement.

Italian
concerto
English, today
concerto

Italian concerto, a deverbal from concertare. a doublet of concert.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

concerto in the wild

Vivaldi divided each concerto into three movements, and, likewise, each linked sonnet into three sections.
The Four Seasons (Vivaldi)
Joachim would later claim it to be the "greatest" German violin concerto.
Violin Concerto (Beethoven)
Since then it has become one of the best-known and regularly performed violin concertos.
Violin Concerto (Beethoven)
Keyboard concertos were common in the time of Johann Sebastian Bach in the Baroque music era, during the Classical period and during the Romantic music era.
Piano concerto
Keyboard concertos are also written by contemporary classical music composers.
Piano concerto

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the concerto family

concert

concerto — used about once every 3,572 pages · #8,497 · point at the bar for the others

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