Cantando

As Printed on a Score

Printed beside the dynamic or under the line it governs — often a voice that must sing through an accompaniment — and combined freely: dolce cantando, molto cantando, cantando espressivo. It lasts for the phrase or passage and lapses when the texture or character changes.

How Composers Use It

Cantando, the gerund of “to sing”, asks for the same thing as cantabile — a sustained, connected, vocal line — but reads as an action in progress, so composers often use it to bring one voice forward in mid-texture. Liszt marks it on melodies emerging from piano figuration; Mahler gives molto cantando to his cellos. Cantabile is the more usual word in headings (Andante cantabile); cantando suits a local instruction.

Example

Mahler, Symphony No. 5, second movement, cellos (“Violoncelle.”), m. 79: “molto cantando” at p, five bars after the tempo turns “Bedeutend langsamer”.

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