Giocoso

Playful, joyful

"Giocoso" is an Italian term that translates to "playful" or "joyful" in English, conveying the meanings of "joyfulness" or "lightheartedness".

In music, "giocoso" is an expression used to instruct performers to play with a playful or cheerful quality, evoking a sense of joyful and carefree spirit.

In other words, when interpreting "giocoso", performers should aim to create a musical performance that exudes a sense of playfulness and merriment, allowing the audience to experience a lighthearted and joyful musical ambiance that captures the spirited and cheerful nature of the piece being played.

Example of Giocoso

Francis Poulenc - Flute sonata, 3rd movement, Presto giocoso

Tutor's Video (Victor Sir)

Frankie Chan

Frankie Chan

California Baptist University (US), Hong Kong Baptist University
Master
Violin, Western Music Theory
Anna Ngai

Anna Ngai

University Mozarteum Salzburg (AT)
Master
Piano, Piano Accompaniment, Western Music Theory
Athena Kwong

Athena Kwong

The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts
Master
Yangqin
Gigi Mok

Gigi Mok

Duquesne University (US), Hong Kong Baptist University
Master
French Horn
Victor Sir

Victor Sir

Hong Kong Baptist University
Bachelor
Clarinet, Saxophone
Mr Kent

Kent Chan

Royal Northern College of Music (UK), Hong Kong Baptist University
Master
Violin
Read the music carefully

Common Practice Guide

After many years of being a student first and a teacher after, we often noticed that in our every day practice we can make small mistakes that may slow us down or might not bring the best out of our music. With these short tips we tried to go through some of them, hoping it will help students (and not only!) in their daily practice.
Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer, the predominant musical figure during the transition between the Classical to Romantic eras. He occupies an unprecedented dominance in the history of Western music history, and has been widely regarded as the greatest, most influential and most popular musician who ever lived.

Beethoven's music inherited the artistic atmosphere of Haydn and Mozart, penetrated the desire for dignity, vented the anger tortured by fate, and demonstrated his determination to fight with fate.

Compared to other musicians, Beethoven is effectively to interact the philosophy of life with audience through music. Although he was not a romantic, he had become the object followed by other romantics.

As a musician, Beethoven suffered from ear diseases. However, he was unwilling to succumb to fate, vowing to take fate by the throat, and continue to complete his career. In the last ten years of his life, without hearing any sound, his compositions influenced the development of music for nearly two hundred years.

G Song

G Song by Terry Riley

As an iconic American composer, Terry Riley (born 1935) is always considered as a minimalist. However, this kind of thoughts would be ignoring part of his creativity. In fact, Riley added plenty elements in his compositions since 1970s, especially when he started collaborating with the Kronos Quartet. Riley’s composing style is very extensive, including improvisation, polyrhythm and jazz. He adopted classical elements, such as instrumentation, musical forms, structure and tonality. He also combined the elements from different periods to create unique musical textures. This research focuses on Terry Riley’s String Quartet, G Song. The research will be divided into two parts. The first part introduces Riley’s life and the background of G Song. The second part focuses on music analysis, including the musical structure “Two forms in one work”; The harmony “Unresolved Dissonance”; The rhythm “Metric Modulation”; The baroque “Canon”; The modern “Pointillism”. The purpose of this study is to discuss how Riley combined classicism and modernism into a work, and discuss why the statement “Terry Riley is considered as minimalist” would be ignoring part of his story.

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