Grandioso

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff as a heading for a section or theme, often at a big arrival with ff and a tempo return (a tempo … grandioso). It holds until the next tempo or character direction.

How Composers Use It

Grandioso asks for grandeur: broad, sonorous, majestic playing at full weight, usually at a climax or a theme’s apotheosis. It often brings a slight broadening, but it is a character word, not a tempo word; write allargando if you want slowing too. Liszt uses it at big arrivals in the B minor Sonata and the Second Ballade. Close to maestoso, it is grander and more public.

Example

Liszt, Ballade No. 2 in B minor, S. 171, piano, m. 284: “grandioso” at ff, with “a tempo (allegro moderato)” in the same bar, after rinforz.

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