music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

and other

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which involve the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. P ...

, the phrase (; or 'as you desire'), often shortened to "ad lib" (as an

adjective An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...

adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a determiner, a clause, a preposition, or a sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, or level of certainty by ...

) or "ad-lib" (as a

verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...

noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...

), refers to various forms of

improvisation Improvisation, often shortened to improv, is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. The origin of the word itself is in the Latin "improvisus", which literally means un-foreseen. Improvis ...

. The roughly synonymous phrase ('in accordance with ne'sgood pleasure') is less common but, in its Italian form , has entered the musical ''

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...

'' (see below). The phrase "at liberty" is often associated

mnemonic A mnemonic device ( ), memory trick or memory device is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval in the human memory, often by associating the information with something that is easier to remember. It makes use of e ...

ally (because of the

alliteration Alliteration is the repetition of syllable-initial consonant sounds between nearby words, or of syllable-initial vowels if the syllables in question do not start with a consonant. It is often used as a literary device. A common example is " Pe ...

of the ''lib-'' syllable), although it is not the translation (there is no cognation between and ). Libido is the etymologically closer cognate known in English. In

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

and

nutrition Nutrition is the biochemistry, biochemical and physiology, physiological process by which an organism uses food and water to support its life. The intake of these substances provides organisms with nutrients (divided into Macronutrient, macro- ...

, the phrase is used to describe feeding without restriction.

Music

As a direction in

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed Book, books or Pamphlet, pamphlets ...

, indicates that the performer or conductor has one of a variety of types of discretion with respect to a given passage: *to play the passage in free time rather than in strict or " metronomic"

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...

(a practice known as '' rubato'' when not expressly indicated by the composer); *to improvise a melodic line fitting the general structure prescribed by the passage's written notes or chords; *to omit an instrument part, such as a nonessential accompaniment, for the duration of the passage; or *in the phrase "repeat ", to play the passage an arbitrary number of times (''

cf. The abbreviation cf. (short for either Latin or , both meaning 'compare') is generally used in writing to refer the reader to other material to make a comparison with the topic being discussed. However some sources offer differing or even contr ...

'' vamp). Note that the direction (see above) has a more restricted meaning, generally referring to only the first two types of discretion.

Baroque music Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Classical music, Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance music, Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Class ...

, especially, has a written or implied , with most composers intimating the freedom the performer and conductor have. For post-Baroque classical music and jazz, see cadenza.

Other performing arts

"Ad-lib" is used to describe individual moments during live theatre when an actor speaks through their character using words not found in the play's text. When the entire performance is predicated on spontaneous creation, the process is called

improvisational theatre Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv or impro in British English, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted, created spontaneously by the performers. In its ...

. In

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

, the term ''ad-lib'' usually refers to the interpolation of unscripted material in an otherwise scripted performance. For example, in interviews, Dustin Hoffman says he ''ad-libbed'' the now famous line, "I'm walking here! I'm walking here!" as "Ratso" Rizzo in '' Midnight Cowboy'' (1969). While filming at a streetcorner, the scene was interrupted by a taxi driver. Hoffman wanted to say, "We're filming a movie here!", but stayed in character, allowing the take to be used. Some actors are also known for their ability or tendency to ad-lib, such as

Peter Falk Peter Michael Falk (September 16, 1927 – June 23, 2011) was an American film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Columbo (character), Lieutenant Columbo on the NBC/American Broadcasting Company, ABC series ''Columbo'' (196 ...

of the television series '' Columbo''. When performing as Colombo, Falk would ad-lib such mannerisms as absent-mindedness, fumbling through his pockets, or asking for a pencil, all in a deliberate attempt to frustrate his co-stars in the scene and obtain a more genuine reaction. Live performers such as

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

talk-show hosts sometimes deliver material that sounds ad-libbed but is actually scripted. They may employ ''ad-lib writers'' to prepare such material. The

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

sitcom '' Curb Your Enthusiasm'' by

Seinfeld ''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, with a total of nine seasons consisting of List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It ...

co-creator

Larry David Lawrence Gene David (born July 2, 1947) is an American comedian, writer, actor, and television producer. He is known for his dry wit, portrayals of awkward social situations, and brutally honest takes on everyday life. He has received two Prim ...

primarily uses retroscripting and ad-lib instead of scripted dialogue.

References

* {{cite book , title=Amo, Amas, Amat and More , url=https://archive.org/details/amoamasamatmore00ehrl , url-access=registration , first=Eugene , last=Ehrlich , year=1985 , pag
23
, publisher=Harper & Row, Publishers , location=New York, isbn=9780061812491 Latin words and phrases Improvisation Musical terminology

Music

Other performing arts

See also

References