Solo (music)

The terms solo or solo (it. solo: "alone"; pl. soli) have several meanings in music.

As an instrumentation statement, it refers firstly to a solo piece performed by an instrument or vocal part alone. Since there is an extensive repertoire of such works, especially for the piano, and to a lesser extent for violin, flute, cello and others, it is often distinguished from chamber music for two or more players.

On the other hand, it refers to music for one or more soloists and accompaniment by an orchestra, basso continuo or other instrumentation. If the entire work is for soloist and accompaniment, it is an instrumental concerto.

A solo may also mean a passage within a piece of music in which one or more soloists have to perform a demanding part, in which they stand out expressively as individuals and distinguish themselves musically and acoustically from the accompaniment.

In the classical orchestra solo contrasts with tutti, especially in the case of the string instruments, which otherwise play the same part within groups. In the baroque concerto grosso the musical form is based on the interplay between tutti and solo passages. Here solo means a group of soloists, each performing their own part.

In music mainly of the 19th and 20th centuries, the instruction solo may also appear in solo ensembles, such as a wind quintet. There it draws musicians' attention to a particularly exposed passage and calls for the voice to stand out.

Solos are of central importance in jazz. Even the short fills and the somewhat more extensive breaks that mark the boundaries between form parts are soloistic activities; however, we typically speak of a "solo" when an entire form part or the entire piece is soloistic. A solo in jazz is often improvised.

Famous guitar solos in rock music come from Pink Floyd in Comfortably Numb, Led Zeppelin in Stairway to Heaven, Genesis in Firth of Fifth, the Eagles in Hotel California or Guns N' Roses in November Rain, while in metal the most famous solos come from Metallica in Master of Puppets, Judas Priest in Painkiller or Iron Maiden in Powerslave.

Rock guitarists like Eric Clapton during his time with Cream or Ritchie Blackmore with Deep Purple also improvised live and didn't just reproduce their studio solos.

See also

• Instrumental concert
• Cadenza (instrumental concerto)