Adagio cantabile

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the first system as the heading of a slow movement or section, and in force until the next tempo word. When it returns briefly inside another movement, as a recollection or quotation, it is usually cancelled within a few bars by Tempo I.

How Composers Use It

A slow, singing tempo: the melody leads, legato and vocally shaped, over a quiet supporting accompaniment. The word asks pianists and instrumentalists to imitate the voice, so keep phrases within a singable span and give them places to breathe. Beethoven uses it in the Ninth Symphony’s finale to recall the slow movement for two bars before the music moves on, a sign of how firmly the marking was tied to the cantabile Adagio type.

Example

Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 (“Pathétique”), second movement, m. 1: “Adagio cantabile”, at p.

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