Cadenza

A cadenza is the soloist's moment alone. The orchestra stops, and the soloist plays a passage in free time that shows off both technique and imagination, usually built from the movement's own themes. Then the orchestra re-enters to finish the movement.

The word means "cadence" in Italian, because the cadenza was originally an elaboration of the final cadence of a movement or an aria.

Where it comes in a Classical concerto

In a Classical concerto, the cadenza usually comes near the end of the first movement, and sometimes in the others:

1. The orchestra builds to a big chord, very often the tonic chord in second inversion (a cadential six-four), marked with a fermata.
2. The soloist plays the cadenza alone, without a regular beat, often with bar lines missing or ignored.
3. The cadenza usually ends with a trill on the dominant chord, a signal to the orchestra.
4. The orchestra comes back in to play the closing music.

Improvised or written out?

In the 18th century, soloists were expected to improvise cadenzas or prepare their own. Mozart wrote down cadenzas for many of his piano concertos, and some of these survive. From Beethoven onward, composers increasingly wrote cadenzas into the score themselves. In his Fifth Piano Concerto, the "Emperor," Beethoven tells the pianist not to add a cadenza of their own. Later composers sometimes moved the cadenza: in Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto it comes before the recapitulation instead of near the end.

Today most performers play a published cadenza, either by the composer or by a famous performer, though some still write their own. For Mozart's Piano Concerto in D minor, K. 466, the cadenzas that Beethoven wrote are among the most often played.

Cadenzas outside concertos

• Singers add short cadenzas at fermatas in arias, especially in Baroque and bel canto opera.
• Solo piano music sometimes includes cadenza-like passages, printed in small notes without bar lines.
• Jazz has an equivalent: an unaccompanied solo break, often at the end of a ballad.

On the page

A written cadenza is often printed in smaller notes, with few or no bar lines, and marked cadenza, ad lib. or a piacere ("at pleasure"). Treat the rhythm as a guide rather than a strict measure, but keep the shape of each gesture clear.