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Almost, as if; softens a direction ("quasi allegretto", "quasi pizz.").
Printed immediately before the word it qualifies, wherever that word would go: in tempo headings (“Allegretto grazioso (Quasi Andantino)”), over parts (“quasi pizz.”, “quasi trillo”), or in comparisons with another instrument (“quasi trombe”). Its scope is that of the word it qualifies.
Quasi turns an instruction into an approximation or an image: quasi Andantino places a tempo between two words, quasi recit. asks for the freedom of recitative without a literal recitative, and quasi pizz. or quasi trombe asks one instrument to imitate another’s sound. It is a precise tool for a halfway state; use it when neither neighbouring word is right, not as a hedge on every marking.
Brahms, Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73, third movement, flute, m. 1: “Allegretto grazioso (Quasi Andantino)”, the parenthesis drawing the Allegretto back towards Andantino.
Quasi is one of 1755 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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