Home UK English tutti

Meaning of tutti in English:

tutti

Pronunciation /ˈtʊti/

adverb

Music

  • (especially as a direction) with all voices or instruments together.

    ‘each strain is first performed tutti, then played by the instruments only’
    • ‘Even in the tutti sections, the instruments say only as much as they need to.’
    • ‘Such movements were characterized by the alternation and contrast between solo and tutti sections, the tuttis being based always on the same material.’
    • ‘The slow movement dares much with bare textures, interrupting tutti passages with one instrument singing the remnant of a song.’
    • ‘Words are clear, and the hymns, presented in their entirety, are imaginatively varied in terms of solo, a cappella, sectional and tutti singing.’
    • ‘Fong's violin gradually assumes more control over the quartet, leading it into imitation, sparking its tempo, and supplying high-pitched notes in dissonant tutti chords.’

adjective

Music

  • Performed with all voices or instruments together.

    • ‘the work as a whole is a contrast between solo and tutti sections’

nounplural noun tuttis

Music

  • A passage to be performed with all voices or instruments together.

    ‘The concept of a dialogue was enhanced in the Classical period by a growing distinction in ‘public’ concertos between the grand symphonic manner of orchestral tuttis and the more intimate sonata style of solo passages.’
    • ‘There was pathos in the evocatively dovetailed dialogues with the strings; left-hand chords emerged inconspicuously from tuttis, the melody poised evanescently above.’
    • ‘The forms of both concertos are quite free and tend towards a pattern of orchestral tuttis interspersed with cadenza-like periods of rumination.’
    • ‘The concerto is mostly lightweight with tuttis the more dramatic when they appear.’
    • ‘In contrast, the larger forces of, say, the Chicago Symphony in the Pearlman / Giulini recording, add power in the tuttis and a greater weightiness to the effect generally, but I am not sure that is really needed in this work.’

Origin

Italian, plural of tutto ‘all’, from Latin totus.