Key
Maggiore
Italian for major.
What it means
Maggiore is the Italian word for major. In musical scores it usually does not name a key as such but appears as a direction marking a shift from minor to major within a piece.
Musical use
Maggiore often stands above a contrasting middle section or a variation that moves a melody previously in minor into the relative or parallel major key, for example in minuets, trios or variation movements of the Viennese Classical period. The later return to the original key is then often marked minore. Maggiore should be distinguished from the plain key designation major, which names a fixed key, whereas maggiore in the score marks a formal section.