scherzando means in a playful or sportive manner.
Why “scherzando” is a great word
A musical direction indicating a passage should be played in a playful, sportive, or joking manner. From the Italian scherzando, the gerund of scherzare ('to joke or jest'), first recorded in English use 1785–90. Unlike giocoso, which suggests a sunny, uncomplicated cheerfulness, or badinerie, which denotes a specific genre of light, self-contained pieces, scherzando is a fleeting instruction for nuanced wit—a raised eyebrow from composer to performer. It is the cellist's bow dancing off the string in a mock-stumble, the pianist's left hand chasing its right in irreverent canon, or the sudden accelerando that sounds like suppressed laughter in a solemn room: music pretending not to take itself seriously, which may be the most serious thing music can do.
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian scherzando.
adv
- In a playful or sportive manner.
noun
- A piece of music to be played in a playful or sportive manner.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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