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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.
Printed as “Ossia” or “Ossia:” beside a small extra staff, usually above the main one, holding an alternative version of a few bars; the main staff carries on underneath. Some editions print the alternative in small notes on the same staff. The choice covers only the bars the ossia spans, after which the single text resumes.
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 — alternative readings of difficult passages, often but not always easier. 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 1760 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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