Solo (music)

In music, a solo (Italian for 'alone') is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung featuring a single performer, who may be performing completely alone or supported by an accompanying instrument such as a piano or organ, a continuo group (in Baroque music), or the rest of a choir, orchestra, band, or other ensemble.

Furthermore, the word soli can be used to refer to a small number of simultaneous parts assigned to single players in an orchestral composition.

In the Baroque concerto grosso, the term for such a group of soloists was concertino.

An instrumental solo is often used in popular music during a break or bridge to add interest and variety to a part of the song without lyrics.

[citation needed] In the Baroque and Classical periods, the word solo was virtually equivalent to sonata, and could refer either to a piece for one melody instrument with (continuo) accompaniment, or to a sonata for an unaccompanied melody instrument, such as Johann Sebastian Bach’s sonatas for violin alone.