Cadenzas

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A virtuosic flourish or passage for a solo instrument, typically played during a concerto or similar composition
2. An embellishment or elaborate musical device where a performer improvises or showcases skill
3. A decorative and free-form segment in classical music, often marking a transition or climax in a performance

Etymology: "Cadenzas" is the plural of "cadenza," a word English borrowed from Italian, where it means a cadence, the closing turn of a musical phrase. Italian took it from Latin "cadentia," a falling, which is also the source of "cadence" and "chance." That shared ancestry is the surprise here: a flourish in a concerto and the everyday word for luck came from the same Latin verb meaning "to fall." The link between falling and music is the cadence, a phrase that settles downward toward a resting note. Over time the term came to name the ornamental passage that a soloist plays near that closing point, when the orchestra pauses and the performer is free to show off technique and invention. The sense of a showy solo passage grew out of the older musical meaning of a closing turn, so the modern usage keeps a trace of its falling origin.

Synonyms: embellishments, ornamentations, flourishes, improvisations, interludes