Dolce pastorale

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff at the start of the passage, as dolce pastorale or dolce, pastorale; it lasts until a new character word.

How Composers Use It

It joins sweetness of tone to the pastoral topic — drones, compound metre, simple diatonic melody, phrasing like a shepherd’s pipe. Use it to signal an idyllic, rustic episode; the association is strongest when the writing supplies those features, such as sustained bass notes or a lilting 6/8 or 12/8.

Example

Liszt, Transcendental Étude No. 3 (“Paysage”), m. 81: “dolce, pastorale”, in a study headed “Poco Adagio.”

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