Definition of "concerto" [con•cer•to]

• A composition for an orchestra and one or more solo instruments, typically in three movements. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The meaning of the term concerto is "to fight," he instructs, but "it's a positive fight."
• "The composer may be in his seventies, but never before has he used the word 'concerto' in the title of a work, and never before has he written for solo violin."
• "The river Exe at Bickleigh later formed the inspiration for a violin concerto, composed in 1951 as a gift for, and first performed by, his wife Pauline Ashley, a fellow student at Trinity College London, where (after national service in the RAF) he studied piano, theory and musical philosophy, and took lessons on the recorder from Edgar Hunt."