Flüchtig

As Printed on a Score

Printed over the notes it concerns, often in parentheses or as a note on a figure (“(Triole: flüchtig)”), or as a local character word (“etwas flüchtig”). Its scope is the figure or phrase named, and it lapses when that passage ends.

Also spelled: fluchtig, flüchtiger

How Composers Use It

Fleeting, passing quickly: the notes should brush past without weight or emphasis. Mahler uses it to tell trumpeters how to treat a triplet — quick and light, not dwelt on — a rhythm-and-weight instruction no symbol supplies. Use it for ornaments, pickups and passing figures you want heard as a gesture rather than as individual notes.

Example

Mahler, Symphony No. 5, first movement, trumpets, m. 11: “(Triole: flüchtig)” over a triplet figure marked sf.

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