A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Passage
PASSAGE. The word 'passage' is used of music in the same general sense that it is used of literature, without any special implication of its position or relations in the formal construction of a work, but merely as a portion identifiable through some characteristic trait or conterminous idea.
Thus in modern writings on music such expressions as 'passage in first violins,' 'passage in strict counterpoint,' 'passage where the basses go gradually down through two octaves,' show that the amount or extent of music embraced by the term is purely arbitrary, and may amount to two bars or to two pages at the will of the person using the term, so long as the definition, epithet or description given with it sufficiently covers the space so as to make its identification easy and certain; short of this the word by itself conveys no meaning.
It is however sometimes used in a special though not very honourable sense, of runs and such portions of music as are meaningless except as opportunities for display of dexterity on the part of executants, which are therefore in fact and by implication nothing more than 'passages.' In this respect literature and language are fortunate in having long ago arrived at such a pitch of development that it is hardly possible to find a counterpart except in the byways of gushing sentimental poetry or after-dinner oratory. It is possible that the musical use of the term originated in the amount of attention and labour which executants have had, especially in former days, to apply to such portions of the works they undertook, and the common habit of speaking of practising 'passages,' growing by insensible degrees to imply practising what it is hardly worth the while of an intelligent audience to listen to, except for the sake of the technique. It is probable that this use of the word in its special sense, except for mere exercises, will become less frequent in proportion to the growth of public musical intelligence.