Giocoso
Jocular, playful.
What it means
Giocoso comes from gioco, “play,” and calls for a jocular, playful performance. What is meant is a tone that does not want to be taken seriously: light articulation, surprising accents, a performance with wit.
Giocoso is to be distinguished from gioioso, which resembles it in sound but means “joyful.” The two words are easily confused: the one means the playful, the other joy. Related is scherzando, which designates the same jocular character and is met more often.
As a genre addition the word appears in the term dramma giocoso, which in the eighteenth century designates a cheerful form of opera.
In the notation
The word is written in italics above the staff, usually after a tempo word, and applies until a new marking. It can become part of the movement's name. Typical neighbours are short articulation marks, unexpected accents, rests at surprising places, and terse motifs.
Musical use
The designation is used in scherzos, in finale movements, and in variations of a cheerful cut. In chamber music it stands over movements that live from the interplay of short motifs. The playful shows itself often in the form itself: in broken-off phrases, sudden rests, and turns that end differently than expected.
The instruction calls for a playful, jocular performance with light articulation and flexible tempo. It is often found in scherzos, rondos, and finale movements of the Classical and Romantic periods. The character lives from surprises, small pauses, and contrasting accents. Opera characters and scenes also bear the designation, for instance in the dramma giocoso, a mixed form of comic and serious opera, to which Mozart's Don Giovanni is also counted. Everything lives from lightness.
Performance practice
Bring out the surprises: unexpected accents, rests, broken-off phrases — the wit lies in them. Keep the articulation short and springy. Avoid heaviness in the accompaniment and large dynamic arcs. And take the marking literally: a playful performance may take liberties as long as the pulse is right.