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Or — an alternative version of a passage, usually written in a smaller staff above the main part, offering an easier or different option.
Include an ossia when a passage might be too difficult for some performers, or when you want to offer a different version. Liszt provides ossia passages frequently — simplified versions of extremely difficult passages. The performer chooses which version to play.
Liszt's piano works frequently include ossia staves — simplified alternatives to the most virtuosic passages, allowing less advanced pianists to perform the works.
Ossia 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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