Con lagrime

As Printed on a Score

Printed above a vocal line or beside the dynamic, at the phrase it colours; the older spelling lagrime is usual in 19th-century scores, lacrime in modern Italian. It lasts for the phrase and lapses at the next direction.

Also spelled: lagrime, con lacrime

How Composers Use It

Con lagrime asks the performer to sound tearful: a breaking, catching quality in the phrasing, weighted sighs, a shaded tone. It is most at home in vocal music, where it underlines words of grief; Bizet uses it in his songs, once even at ff. Use it once, at the emotional peak — repeated, it turns sentimental — and choose lacrimoso or piangendo for an instrumental line.

Example

Bizet, “Vous ne priez pas”, voice, m. 22: “con lagrime” in the same bar as “a Tempo”, just after a stringendo, with ff in the voice.

Related Terms