Flebile

As Printed on a Score

Printed beside the dynamic, usually p, on a plaintive melodic line, often joined to another word — con dolcezza e flebile. It colours the phrase or passage until the next character direction.

How Composers Use It

Flebile asks for a weeping, frail quality: a thin, mournful tone, gentle sighing phrasing, no robust projection. It is softer than lamentoso and more fragile than dolente. Tchaikovsky pairs it with dolcezza for a flute melody in the Pathétique’s second movement, letting sweetness and lament mix. Use it on exposed solos where a little frailty in the sound is the point.

Example

Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6 (“Pathétique”), second movement, first flute, m. 73: “I. con dolcezza e flebile” at p, in the movement headed “Allegretto con grazia”.

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