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Tenderly, with warm feeling. In 18th-century headings it also implied an unhurried, rather slow tempo.
Appears in two ways: alone as a movement or section heading (Affettuoso), or qualifying a tempo word — Andante affettuoso, Allegro affettuoso. Inside a passage it sits beside the dynamic, below an instrumental staff or above a vocal one. Nothing formally cancels it; it lasts until a new tempo or character word replaces it.
Affettuoso names warmth of feeling rather than softness, so it asks for a singing, leaning phrasing in which the expressive notes are given time, at whatever dynamic you write. Bach heads the slow movement of the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto with it alone, where it stands for tempo and mood together; Schumann’s Allegro affettuoso, in the Piano Concerto, keeps the speed and asks for warmth within it. Prefer it to dolce when you want ardour rather than sweetness.
Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050, second movement: headed simply “Affettuoso”, with no tempo word beside it.
Affettuoso is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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