Andante espressivo

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the first system as a movement or song heading, or at a new section such as a postlude, and in force until the next tempo word. Beethoven and later German composers sometimes add a vernacular paraphrase beside it, which the reader should treat as part of the same instruction.

How Composers Use It

Espressivo asks the player to shape the walking pace with feeling: nuance, warmly inflected phrases, dynamics that breathe. It is the marking of an inward slow movement or a song’s closing reflection; Schumann gives it to the last pages of Dichterliebe. Because espressivo invites rubato, be precise about where the music must stay strict, and do not also scatter espr. through every phrase, which dilutes the heading.

Example

Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 26 in E-flat major, Op. 81a (“Les Adieux”), second movement (“Abwesenheit”), m. 1: “Andante espressivo”, with Beethoven’s German “In gehender Bewegung, doch mit Ausdruck”.

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