Con passione

As Printed on a Score

Printed beside the dynamic or joined to other directions — più animato con passione; con passione e poco a poco accel. It shapes the passage until the next character direction, and a push in tempo, where wanted, is usually written separately beside it.

Also spelled: passione

How Composers Use It

Con passione asks for intense, committed expression: full tone, urgency, phrasing that surges toward its peaks. It is the noun phrase of appassionato and means much the same; con passione more often marks a moment within a movement, appassionato more often heads one. If you want the tempo to move as well, write it — Liszt and Amy Beach pair the word with animato or accel. rather than relying on it.

Example

Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2 No. 1, first movement, m. 141: “con passione” at p, with sf accents either side; in the exposition, at m. 42, the same movement prints “con espressione”.

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