Doloroso

As Printed on a Score

Printed beside the dynamic or within a heading (con espressione dolorosa); in bilingual editions it may sit beside German schmerzlich. It colours the phrase or passage and lapses at the next character direction.

How Composers Use It

Doloroso asks for pain in the sound: weighted, aching notes, a darkened tone, phrasing that leans into dissonance. It is nearly synonymous with dolente, but where dolente is plaintive, doloroso is the more acute. Mahler marks it with schmerzlich at a crescendo in the Kindertotenlieder, showing that it can grow in intensity rather than simply droop. Pair it with a dynamic; it does not set one.

Example

Mahler, Kindertotenlieder, “In diesem Wetter, in diesem Braus”, voice, m. 29: “doloroso” with the German “schmerzlich” and cresc. after a p, in a song headed “Inquieto, con espressione dolorosa”.

Related Terms