Gesangvoll

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff as a heading (often with a further qualifier) or in parentheses over a melody that should sing (“(Sehr gesangvoll)”). It lasts as long as that melody, or until another character word.

How Composers Use It

Gesangvoll is the German cantabile: a singing line with long breath, connected notes and natural vocal shaping. Beethoven heads the variation theme of Op. 109 “Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung”; Schumann uses the word for melodies inside piano textures. On the keyboard it asks the player to project the tune over the accompaniment, so make sure the voicing allows that.

Example

Schumann, Arabeske in C major, Op. 18, m. 91: “(Sehr gesangvoll)” arrives together with “(Noch langsamer)” and a ritard.

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