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Caressing.
Printed above the staff or over a voice part, alone or joined to a tempo word (Lent et caressant). It colours the passage until the next character marking.
It asks for a stroking, intimate tone: soft, warm and legato, with gentle shaping and no hard attacks — a touch more than a dynamic. Debussy uses it both in a song’s heading and mid-song for a tender turn in the voice. It suits sensuous or loving texts; avoid it where rhythmic clarity matters more than warmth of tone.
Debussy, Ariettes oubliées, “Green”, voice, m. 42: “caressant”, at p, two bars after an “Andantino”.
Caressant 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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