allegrissimo
allegrissimo
Italian
“The superlative of lively — as fast and bright as notation allows.”
Allegrissimo is the superlative degree of allegro. Italian builds superlatives by suffixing -issimo to the base form, so allegro (lively, brisk) becomes allegrissimo (most lively, most brisk). The same pattern produces pianissimo from piano, fortissimo from forte, prestissimo from presto. Allegrissimo is the highest intensity in the allegro family, designating not merely fast but the extreme end of fast — the fastest the music can credibly sustain without collapsing into prestissimo.
Allegro itself comes from Latin alacrem, the accusative form of alacer, meaning lively, eager, brisk. In classical Latin, alacer described soldiers ready for action, horses fresh at the start of a race, and minds quick to grasp an argument — a forward-pressing, animated quality. Italian inherited the word and attached it to music by the 16th century. By the 17th century, Italian had become the international language of Western art music notation, and allegro and its derivatives were being read by musicians across Europe.
Allegrissimo appears in Italian keyboard and ensemble music from the late 17th century onward, though it remained less common than prestissimo for indicating maximum speed. Some 18th-century music theorists distinguished them: prestissimo described sheer velocity as a physical property of the tempo, while allegrissimo implied velocity combined with brightness and animated character — light and fast rather than simply fast. In practice the terms overlapped, and individual composers chose between them according to personal habit rather than strict theoretical rule.
Domenico Scarlatti, who composed over 555 keyboard sonatas at the Spanish court between 1729 and 1757, marked his most driven, percussive pieces allegrissimo. These are the sonatas with hammered repeated notes and hand-crossing, written for Queen Maria Barbara of Braganza, whose keyboard playing was technically exceptional. Scarlatti's allegrissimo designations set a standard for the term's application to music of brilliant, hard-driving character.
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Today
Allegrissimo appears in published scores and performance editions today as a genuine notation choice, though it is less frequently marked than allegro or prestissimo. Pianists encounter it in Scarlatti and in some Haydn and Clementi works. Conductors use it as a qualitative instruction in rehearsal — asking not just speed but a particular lightness and brightness that mere prestissimo does not specify.
The word's etymology is entirely transparent to any Italian speaker: the most very lively, stacked with emphasis. That transparency is part of the expressive system's power. A performer reading allegrissimo understands immediately that the composer meant not merely fast but animated to the maximum, lit from within. Music's fastest moods were named after a Roman soldier's eagerness before battle.
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