Affannato

As Printed on a Score

A character word printed above the staff, usually combined with others — Scriabin’s sotto voce misterioso affannato — and governing the passage until the next character direction. It names a feeling, not a tempo, so any change of pace is the performer’s inference.

How Composers Use It

Performers usually render it with short, uneven breaths in the phrasing, a slightly pressing pulse and restless dynamics. It belongs to the vocabulary of late Romantic anxiety, Scriabin above all, and works best paired with a dynamic or colour word: under sotto voce it gives a hushed, fearful agitation; with f it becomes panic. Write the breathlessness into the rhythm as well as the word.

Example

Scriabin, Piano Sonata No. 5, Op. 53, m. 98: “sotto voce misterioso affannato” with “una corda”; the hush lifts at m. 100 with “(tre corde)” and f.

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