Allegro giocoso

As Printed on a Score

A movement or section heading, printed above the first system and, in a full score, repeated over the string group and in every part. It holds until the next tempo word; giocoso belongs to the heading, so it colours the whole section rather than one phrase, and a metronome mark, when given, follows it.

How Composers Use It

Giocoso asks for humour and high spirits as well as speed: bright accents, crisp rhythms, a sense of play rather than drive. Brahms gave it to the boisterous third movement of his Fourth Symphony, with piccolo and triangle, a reminder that giocoso can be loud and robust, not only dainty. Choose it over Allegro scherzando when the joke is broad rather than delicate, and let scoring and articulation carry the humour as much as the word does.

Example

Brahms, Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98, third movement, m. 1: “Allegro giocoso” heads the movement, which opens at ff.

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