# Why is Italian the defacto classical music language? (Pre 19th century anyway)



## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

I've often wondered this, for many years it was Italian rather than the persons own nationality that was what he wrote in, and even today if you want to be understood by more than your own language, you still can use Italian for directions. So, I ask why? I'm not against it or anything but this has been something I've been thinking about while learning the language.


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

I quess that during Renaissance Italy was the cultural leader in Europe and other nations adopted their musical language. Also, at that time, Latin was a universal language (much like English is today) and Latin is related to Italian.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Italy was the musical center of Europe for almost the entire seventeenth century.


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## Mal (Jan 1, 2016)

Italian wasn't universal. Glancing at Marriner's Handel box, besides Italian (allegro...) he used French (Ouverture, La Paix...) and English (Jig, Air,...) as performance instructions. Operas are sung in other languages than Italian.


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## ZJovicic (Feb 26, 2017)

Maybe a part of it has to do with intrinsic properties of Italian language: it's usually cleanly pronounced, doesn't have long clusters of consonants or unusual sounds, which makes it suitable for opera.
Also the way it coins the words is very productive and suitable when subtle differences in style are important, for example:
allegro, allegretto, forte, fortissimo, vivo, vivace, vivacissimo, etc.
Perhaps for those reasons it stayed strong long after Italy lost its leadership in classical music.


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## Room2201974 (Jan 23, 2018)

Manok said:


> I've often wondered this, for many years it was Italian rather than the persons own nationality that was what he wrote in, and even today if you want to be understood by more than your own language, you still can use Italian for directions. So, I ask why? I'm not against it or anything but this has been something I've been thinking about while learning the language.


Simple answer: The Italian printing hegemony! Guido de Arezzo to Ottaviano Petrucci.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

In addition, "classical" music started via Gregorian chant in the 9th century which was born in the Roman Catholic Church.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

They got there first, that's why. Musicians universally read and speak Italian, albeit the limited amount needed to understand directions in music. That's why Mahler is so different: his directions are largely in German. Percy Grainger wrote his directions in English and frankly is more confusing than if he had just written in Italian. Many French composers use French, but their scores still are loaded with Italian terms. Even Russian scores use it. Italian is the universal language of music and will remain so, thanks to the Renaissance and the Italian Baroque composers.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Most of the great music comes from the South of Europe and The Netherlands/ Flanders,jut like the culture.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Pugg said:


> Most of the great music comes from the South of Europe and The Netherlands/ Flanders,jut like the culture.


There's probably some Spanish influence on Flanders culture, and vice versa. In music this is an area I'd love to explore.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

I found this of interest in the use of Italian and other languages: https://www.google.com/amp/s/blog.oxforddictionaries.com/amp/2014/10/07/musical-directions-italian/


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Me, I just write my directions in English. But with an Italian accent.


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## manyene (Feb 7, 2015)

Well, the French and later the Germans (led by Robert Schumann) began to break free later. Britain came much later, but then Percy Grainger took it to extremes with his 'loudens' and 'fiddles'.


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## neofite (Feb 19, 2017)

Interesting discussion.

For a non-Italian composer writing Classical (broadly defined to include Romantic) music today, would Italian still be the best choice? Likewise, would Italian be the best choice for a composer writing so-called "contemporary classical" music?


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## DBLee (Jan 8, 2018)

neofite said:


> Interesting discussion.
> 
> For a non-Italian composer writing Classical (broadly defined to include Romantic) music today, would Italian still be the best choice? Likewise, would Italian be the best choice for a composer writing so-called "contemporary classical" music?


The terminology is so engrained into musicians from the time they first start learning to play that experienced musicians rarely think about the fact that those terms are of Italian origin. Musicians expect to see "crescendo" and "diminuendo" in their parts. If a composer/arranger were to replace the common dynamic marking "p" with "s" (for the English "soft" instead of the Italian "piano"), or "f" with "l" ("loud"), it would confuse everyone.

That said, sometimes one will find more detailed instructions being given in English, French, German, etc.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

It is funny, however, to play under some "conductors" who, when asked by a player what a term means, they try to fake their way through it and too often get it wrong. There was a stupid, young kid a couple of years ago thinking he was a great conductor and hit a L'istesso mark and suddenly sped up. A player asked why are we going faster and he replied, "yes, l'istesso - lighter, quicker". Likewise with stringendo, attacca, colla parte and funniest of all, Ritmo di tre battute. If you're gonna conduct, you'd better know the languages and Italian is primary.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Even the tempo markings of classical music compositions are most often in Italian. I'd call that pretty "ingrained".

When I used to perform Copland's Clarinet Concerto, I was struck by the tempo markings in English, such as "slowly, but not too slowly". Extremely rare!


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