Adagio espressivo

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff as a heading, or for a contrasting slow section inside a faster movement, where it lasts only until the next tempo word, often the return of the opening tempo. In such alternating movements both tempos are re-marked at every change.

How Composers Use It

A slow tempo given over to expressive freedom: rubato, intense dynamic shading, held tones. As an interruption inside faster music it can sound improvisatory, almost like a recitative; as a heading, as in Brahms’s song “Gestillte Sehnsucht”, it sets an inward, lyrical slowness. Espressivo invites flexibility, so mark any place where you need strict time, and let the heading carry the expression rather than adding espr. to every phrase.

Example

Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109, first movement, m. 9: “Adagio espressivo” breaks into the opening Vivace, with cresc., f and p crowded into its first bars.

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