Languido

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff as a character word for a phrase or section, often with an intensifier (“molto languido”) or a qualifier (“quasi languido”). It shapes mood and touch rather than tempo or dynamics and lasts until the music’s character changes; in piano music it often appears beside dolcissimo or una corda.

How Composers Use It

Languido asks for a slack, drooping, sensuous quality: unhurried attacks, phrases that seem to sink under their own weight, a hint of yielding rubato. It belongs especially to late Romantic and Symbolist music, where languor is an expressive goal rather than a fault; Scriabin’s Fifth Sonata uses it more than once. Put it on material that already relaxes, such as long notes, falling lines and soft dynamics, and add a tempo word if the pulse must not sag.

Example

Scriabin, Piano Sonata No. 5, Op. 53, m. 13: “Languido”, printed with “dolciss.” and “una corda” after the ff of the “Impetuoso” opening; “molto languido” follows at m. 29.

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