Âpre

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff or over the voice, as Âpre or apre without the circumflex. It sets a harsh character for a passage, often brief, until a gentler marking returns.

Also spelled: apre

How Composers Use It

It asks for roughness: a bitter, biting tone, with hard consonants in song or a gritty attack in instruments — deliberately unbeautiful sound. Lili Boulanger uses it for a moment of bitterness in a song, after a calmer, softer passage and as the music gathers towards ff. Use it sparingly and briefly; sustained harshness tires both listener and performer.

Example

Boulanger, Clairières dans le ciel, “Si tout ceci n’est qu’un pauvre rêve”, voice, m. 26: “âpre”, following an mf in the bar before.