Clair

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff or between piano staves at the passage it describes, alone or joined to another word — expressif et clair, ardemment clair. It lasts until the colour changes or a new character word appears.

How Composers Use It

Clair asks for a bright, transparent sound: clean attacks, light pedal, voices distinct, a tone with edge rather than warmth. It is a colour word, not a dynamic, so it pairs with any level, and it makes a natural contrast with sombre or enveloppé when a passage moves from shadow into light. Lili Boulanger uses it in Clairières dans le ciel to brighten the music as an a tempo returns.

Example

Boulanger, Clairières dans le ciel, “Elle est gravement gaie”, piano, m. 26: “clair” comes with the a tempo that ends a rit.

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