Amabile

As Printed on a Score

Printed in italic beside the dynamic, or attached to a tempo word in a heading; the noun form con amabilità appears in the same places. Like other character words it has no cancelling counterpart and holds until a new tempo or character direction takes over.

How Composers Use It

Amabile asks for charm and ease — a friendly, unforced tone with gentle accents — rather than the intimacy of affettuoso or the softness of dolce. It suits graceful Classical and early-Romantic writing and works best on light, lyrical material; on a slow, intense line it can sound coy. Beethoven’s con amabilità at the start of Op. 110, glossed in German as sanft (gentle), shows how close it sits to gentleness.

Example

Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110, first movement, m. 1: “con amabilità” follows the opening p, with Beethoven’s German gloss “(sanft)” beside it — the noun form of the word.

Related Terms