A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Alternativo
ALTERNATIVO. A term of frequent occurrence in suites and other compositions of the 17th and 18th centuries, having precisely the same meaning as the more modern word Trio, when that is used of the middle movement of a minuet or scherzo. The name as well as the form evidently had its origin in the common use, for dancing purposes, of two more or less contrasting measures, which were played alternately as long as the dancers desired. [See Grossvatertanz, Csardas, Magyar Music, etc.; and iv. 172 b.] The word seems generally to carry with it the direction 'Da capo,' since that sign is seldom found in conjunction with it, although the idea of going back to the first strain or measure is never absent from the Alternativo. The latest instance of its use is in Schumann's six 'Intermezzi,' op. 4, in four of which it occurs as the title of the middle section.
[ M. ]