A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Parlando

by J. A. Fuller-Maitland

PARLANDO, PARLANTE, 'speaking.' A direction allowing greater freedom in rendering than cantando or cantabile, and yet referring to the same kind of expression. It is generally used in the case of a few notes or bars only, and is often expressed by the signs ∸ ⨪ placed over single notes, and by a slur together with staccato dots over a group of notes. Sometimes, however, it is used of an entire movement, as in the 6th Bagatelle from Beethoven's Op. 33, which is headed 'Allegretto quasi Andante. Con una certa espressione parlante,' and in the 2nd of Schumann's variations on the name 'Abegg,' Op. 1, where the direction 'Basso parlando' stands at the beginning and refers to the whole variation.

[ J. A. F. M. ]