Con dolore

As Printed on a Score

Printed above a vocal line or beside the dynamic in an instrumental part, at the phrase it colours. It lasts for the passage and lapses at the next character direction. The adjectives doloroso and dolente say the same thing in one word.

Also spelled: dolore

How Composers Use It

Con dolore asks for grief in the sound itself: a darker tone, weighted notes and phrasing that aches rather than sobs. It sits between dolente (plaintive) and lamentoso (openly mourning). In songs it usually reinforces what the text already says, so place it where the singer needs a change of colour rather than on every sad word. Used sparingly, it keeps its force.

Example

Bizet, “Adieux de l’hôtesse arabe”, voice, m. 31: “con dolore”, in a song that opens “Andantino melancolico.”

Related Terms