A cadenza is a section of music, usually an aria or a concerto, in which a dramatic solo performance is allowed. The orchestra will usually stop playing near the end of a movement or section, and a solo musician will perform a short piece to demonstrate his or her abilities. This piece can be composed and written down ahead of time, or it can be improvised by the musician. The cadenza is sometimes written into the piece of music by the composer, and other times it is indicated as an improvisation in the music notation.
The custom started in the late 1600s and early 1700s, when famous Italian opera stars would take any opportunity to show off their vocal abilities. The term cadenza is derived from another musical term, cadence, which refers to a piece of music’s final notes, such as an aria. Opera singers would frequently add their own intricate vocal flourishes to these concluding sections, and the practice became commonplace.
When a concerto has a cadenza, it usually occurs at the end of the first movement and is the piece’s most dramatic and virtuoso performance. This can sometimes be accomplished through improvisation, in which the musicians make up the music as they perform. Composers like Mozart, Beethoven, and Vivaldi were also performers, and they used improvised cadenzas to display their personalities, emotions, and advanced skills.
The rest of the orchestra stops playing near the end of a movement, leaving only one performer. With his or her impressive talent and skills, this performer will play the cadenza, bringing the movement to a close. The rest of the orchestra, with or without the soloist, resumes playing the next movement after the cadenza. Most concertos have only one cadenza, and improvised cadenzas are no longer common, though the practice is gaining popularity.
Many composers later wrote down their cadenzas, though some left them as open spaces for highly skilled musicians to improvise. Other composers would sometimes write cadenzas for specific concertos; for example, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto has around 15 different cadenzas written by different composers. In today’s world, only the best musicians improvise during a performance. Most performers compose their cadenza music in advance, have others compose it for them, or use one of the many already available.