Con molto espressione

As Printed on a Score

Printed beside the dynamic under a solo line, or attached to a tempo word in a heading — Lento con molto espressione. In a heading it sets the character of the movement; under a solo it lasts for the phrase or passage.

How Composers Use It

The intensified form of con espressione: phrase with conspicuous feeling — wider dynamic shaping, freer timing, warmer tone. Amy Beach uses it both as a movement heading in her Gaelic Symphony and for solo woodwind lines, a natural place for it. In modern parts molto espressivo is shorter and better known; whichever you choose, avoid piling it on every phrase, where it soon means nothing.

Example

Beach, Symphony in E minor (“Gaelic”), Op. 32, fourth movement, first clarinet, m. 393: “Solo.” and “con molto espressione” at p, while the strings are marked “ben tranquillo”.

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