Dictionary
pas•sage•work
Pronunciation: (pas'ij-wûrk"), [key]—
n. Music.
1. writing that is often extraneous to the thematic material of a work and is typically of a virtuosic or decorative character:
passagework consisting of scales, arpeggios, trills, and double octaves.
2. the performance of such writing:
The pianist's passagework is brilliantly clear and smooth. Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.