Famous Adagios

The Italian word Adagio had become by the time of Mozart a generic term for the central slow movement of an orchestral composition. A direction originally suggesting that the music should be played in a leisurely way or even according to the player's wishes, by the eighteenth century the word had come to mean 'slow', although there was argument as to whether adagio was in fact slower than largo or lento, or even grave, the traditional Baroque Adagio provided scope for improvised ornamentation, a practice that was occasionally exaggerated by instrumental soloists or singers.