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Passionately — with intense, burning emotion.
Appassionato demands the most intense emotional expression a performer can give. Use it for climactic moments of desperate yearning, fury, or ecstasy. It often implies rubato, dynamic extremes, and maximum vibrato.
Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 ("Appassionata"), Op. 57 — the nickname reflects the work's volcanic emotional intensity.
Appassionato is one of 228 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary, where every definition is written around how composers actually use the word.
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