A cadenza is a stretch of music where one player or singer goes on alone, usually inside a long piece for a star player and an orchestra, to show how well they can play. The rest of the group stays quiet. It often comes near the end of a section, after a long held chord that feels as if the music has stopped to make space. In older times the player was expected to make the cadenza up on the spot; though actually, later composers wrote the notes down, and today most players use a written cadenza. Some are short; some are long and very hard. People sometimes stretch the word to mean any showy solo flourish, even outside classical music, but its real home is the concert hall. It is a music-teacher and programme-note word, not everyday chat.

華彩樂段