Intimo

As Printed on a Score

Seldom printed alone: it usually qualifies a noun, most often in “con intimo sentimento”, written above the staff or under a keyboard part at the start of a quiet, inward passage, sometimes inside a tempo direction (“Più lento con intimo sentimento”). It holds until the music changes character, often at the next tempo word.

How Composers Use It

Intimo asks for a private, inward tone: less projection than the dynamic alone suggests, little outward display, the sense of speaking to one listener. Liszt used “con intimo sentimento” for withdrawn lyrical episodes in the B minor Sonata and in Harmonies du soir, beside dolcissimo or una corda. Use it where the player should draw the listener in; on a loud or brilliant passage it contradicts the notes.

Example

Liszt, Transcendental Études, S. 139, No. 11 (“Harmonies du soir”), piano, m. 59: “Più lento con intimo sentimento.”, a bar after “Una corda.” and two after a ppp.

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