À

As Printed on a Score

Printed inside a direction to mean “at” or “to” — à l’aise, à mi-voix, à la pointe, à 2 — never as a direction on its own. Some engravings drop the accent; an unaccented a inside an Italian phrase (a tempo, a due) is the Italian preposition, so read the surrounding language. The phrase sets the scope.

Also spelled: a

How Composers Use It

À builds many of the most useful French performance phrases: à l’aise (at ease, unhurried), à mi-voix (at half voice), à 2 (both players). Because it is small and printed between other words, keep the phrase together on one line so it is not misread. In a part where French and Italian mix, à 2 and a 2 mean the same, but choose one language per score.

Example

Lili Boulanger, Clairières dans le ciel, “Deux ancolies”, voice, m. 3: “à mi-voix, très fin”, two bars into a song headed “Assez vite, souplement”.

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