A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Spiritoso

by George Grove

SPIRITOSO, i.e. 'spiritedly,' is, like Con Spirito, a designation of style rather than of pace. It is occasionally met with in Haydn, rarely in Mozart, and in not one of Beethoven's original works. In his many arrangements of national airs 'Spirituoso' occurs not unfrequently, as in op. 107, no. 10; op. 108, nos. 13, 22; but he probably found it on the copies sent him. Brahms, with a touch of wonted conservatism, uses Con Spirito in the Finale of his and Symphony.

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