Lamentoso

As Printed on a Score

Most often printed as part of a tempo heading above the first system, most famously “Adagio lamentoso”, where it sets the character of the whole section; it can also stand alone over a phrase. It stays in force until a new tempo or character word.

How Composers Use It

Lamentoso asks for the manner of a lament: grieving and heavy, with sighing phrase shapes and a sustained, dark tone. Unlike lacrimoso (weeping) or mesto (sad), it suggests something formal, the lament as a genre with a long history behind it. Tchaikovsky made Adagio lamentoso famous as the heading of a symphonic finale. Pair the word with a slow tempo and let the writing, descending lines and appoggiaturas, do much of the work.

Example

Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6 in B minor (“Pathétique”), finale, flute, m. 1: “Adagio lamentoso” heads the slow movement that ends the symphony.

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