Leidenschaftlich

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff as a heading or at the start of a passionate section, often with a tempo word (Ziemlich rasch. Leidenschaftlich.); it holds until the music changes character.

How Composers Use It

The German appassionato: intensity of feeling expressed through tone, rubato and dynamics. Schumann pairs it with tempo words in his songs; Mahler places it at the outburst of the Fifth Symphony’s first movement. It is a character marking, so combine it with a tempo indication and plan where the passion subsides.

Example

Mahler, Symphony No. 5, first movement (Trauermarsch), first violins, m. 165: “leidenschaftlich”, at ff, ten bars after “Plötzlich schneller. Leidenschaftlich. Wild.”

Related Terms