Music help please, the difference between Allegro and Vivace?!
Question:
Music help please, the difference between Allegro and Vivace?
Ok I am doing a report for my music class. I went to a concert and the movment went: Adagio, vivace, adagio, vivace, Giga: Allegro.
I understand what Adagio means. But I am having a hard time finding the difference between the Vivace and Allegro.
I searched for definitions and found that Allegro means cheerful or brisk; but commonly interpreted as lively, fast.
And that Vivace means: vivace – very lively, up-tempo.
I dont really understand the difference could someone please explain it to me in normal terms where I would see the difference. Thanks so much.
Answers: In very basic terms, allegro is a tempo; vivace is a mood marking.
That is to say, allegro can be measured in terms of BPM (beats per minute) - there is no accepted definition, but let's say it's 120 - 168 BPM.
But vivace simply indicates the mood of the piece. "Vivace" is Italian for "lively", so it may be that the players reach an allegro tempo when told to play vivace. In tempo terms, it is unlikely that a piece marked vivace will be played at less than 140 bpm, so you might say in rough terms that's it's "mid to high allegro territory".
See more at:
http://www.classiccat.net/dictionary/tem... Even though the translations may be ambiguous (allegro=fast, vivace=lively), when in application to actual musical performance, vivace tends to be faster. Vivace is pretty much one of the (if not the) fastest tempo markings. Vivace is a little bit faster than allegro. It also has a "cheery" feeling. "Allegro" is a very general indication for moderate to fast tempos. Many first movements of sonatas and symphonies are marked "allegro". If the composer wants a little more drive, he will mark "allegro con brio" or "allegro vivace" (e.g. first movements of several Beethoven symphonies); if he wants it a bit slower he will say "allegro moderato" or "allegro ma non troppo".
"Vivace" means fast and lively, often with a lighter feeling than "allegro." Many classical symphonies have their last movements marked "vivace."
Even faster than "vivace" is "presto", "presto con fuoco" (with fire) or "prestissimo". These words are about mood as well as tempo.
I have seen metronome markings for allegro anywhere form 120 to 160. Vivace mm markings overlap those of allegro, so tempo is not the only issue.
Think of allegro as brisk and bright, vivace as livelier.
I have seen vivace as a qualifier for allegro -- i.e. "Allegro Vivace".
The actual translation of Allegro is "happy", of vivace "lively".
Their musical meaning are very similar to each other.