Ritornello (see definition). Because the ritornello is stated at the outset and often repeated at the end, the term also was used by composers to mean "introduction" and "ending." In the classical period, for instance, the long introduction to a concerto movement was often called the "ritornello." In Baroque concerto movements, statements of the ritornello (or significant parts of it) alternate with episodic sections in which either the ritornello is entirely absent.