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Performance

Bizarramente

"Whimsically, capriciously" – a bizarre, unpredictable manner of performance.

What it means

Bizarramente is an Italian performance direction calling for a whimsical, capricious, or eccentric manner of expression. It asks the performer to make surprising, quirky turns audible in phrasing, dynamics, or tempo, rather than playing evenly and predictably.

Musical use

Like other character markings in the Italian performance vocabulary, this direction appears mainly in instrumental music, where a composer wants to give a movement or passage a particularly willful, unpredictable character.

It should be distinguished from more neutral character markings such as "scherzando" (playfully), which implies light-hearted humor rather than deliberate unpredictability, and from purely technical tempo markings without any emotional coloring.

Performance practice

When you play a passage marked "bizarramente," dare to bring out unexpected accents, sudden dynamic leaps, or small tempo deviations deliberately. Too smooth, even an execution would contradict the capricious character the marking asks for.