PASSAGEWORK Definition & Meaning

passagework

[ pas-ij-wurk ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

Music.

writing that is often extraneous to the thematic material of a work and is typically of a virtuosic or decorative character:
passagework consisting of scales, arpeggios, trills, and double octaves.
the performance of such writing:
The pianist's passagework is brilliantly clear and smooth.

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of passagework¹

First recorded in 1860–65; passage ¹ + work

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Alternating between legato and staccato, her tone practically bounced off the harpsichord, and she tumbled gracefully through intricate passagework.

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Where “Kauyumari” draws on a Mexican creation story, Márquez’s “Fandango” draws on that country’s music, turning the orchestra into a lively rhythm section that allowed Meyers’s violin to sing with a silky tone, even if her passagework could be difficult to hear.

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If his tone sometimes paled in fast passagework at the final performance on Sunday, he was always winning.

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His passagework had a hard glare, and he lined up chords neatly like punctuation marks.

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Her scintillating accounts of the scherzos deftly balance bursts of breathless passagework and plaintive lyricism.

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