Etwas

As Printed on a Score

Opens a compound direction — Etwas langsamer, etwas zurückhaltend, etwas hervortretend — and lasts exactly as long as the word it qualifies. It is capitalised when it heads a movement or section and lower-case in running directions. When an engraver breaks a long direction across bars, “etwas” can stand alone with the rest printed a bar later; read the two as one instruction.

How Composers Use It

German composers use it where an Italian score would say poco: Etwas langsamer is poco meno mosso, etwas drängend a poco stringendo. It signals a moderate degree, so it pairs naturally with comparatives (etwas breiter) and with character words (Etwas lebhaft). Because its size depends on context, add a metronome mark when the amount matters, and do not stack it with ein wenig or sehr in the same direction.

Example

Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101, first movement, m. 1: “Etwas lebhaft und mit der innigsten Empfindung” — a German heading printed beside an Italian tempo word, at p.

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