Grave, grave |

Italian, lit. – hard, serious, important

1) Music. a term that appeared in 17th century It reflected the strivings towards the fundamental, “weighty”, serious, characteristic of the Baroque style. Was associated with the theory of affects (see. Affect theory). S. Brossard in 1703 interprets the term “G.” as “heavy, important, majestic and therefore almost always slow”. G. denotes a tempo close to largo, intermediate between lento and adagio. It occurs repeatedly in the works of J. S. Bach (Cantata BWV 82) and G. F. Handel (choirs “And Israel said”, “He is my Lord” from the oratorio “Israel in Egypt”). Especially often served as an indication of the pace and nature of slow introductions – intrads, introductions to overtures (“Messiah” by Handel), to the first parts of the cyclic. works (Beethoven’s Pathetic Sonata), to opera scenes (Fidelio, introduction to the scene in prison), etc.

2) Music. a term used as a definition for another word and meaning “deep”, “low”. So, graves voices (lower voices, often just graves) is the designation introduced by Hukbald for the lower tetrachord of the sound system of that time (tetrachord lying below the four finalis; Gc). Octaves graves (lower octave) – a suboctave-koppel in an organ (a device that allowed the organist to double the voice performed into the lower octave; like other octave doublers, it was used mainly in the 18-19th centuries; in the 20th century it fell into disuse , since it did not give a timbre enrichment of the sound and reduced the transparency of the sound tissue).

References: Brossard S. de, Dictionary of Music, containing an explanation of the most used Greek, Latin, Italian and French terms in music…, Amst., 1703; Hermann-Bengen I., Tempobezeichnungen, “Mьnchner Verцffentlichungen zur Musikgeschichte”, I, Tutzing, 1959.