Même

As Printed on a Score

Printed after the noun it identifies — Même mouvement (same tempo), même note — at a point where the notation changes but the reader should not change with it, such as a new metre, a new section or an enharmonic respelling. It applies at that point; the tempo it confirms then runs on until the next tempo word.

Also spelled: meme

How Composers Use It

Même is reassurance: it tells the performer that a change on the page is not a change in sound. Write Même mouvement when a new time signature or a contrasting texture might otherwise suggest a new tempo, and même note when a pitch is respelled or passed between instruments. Without it, many performers will slow or reset at a double bar out of habit.

Example

Debussy, Cinq Poèmes de Baudelaire, “Recueillement”, voice, m. 41: “Même mouvt.”, the abbreviated form, five bars after “Tempo 1°” at m. 36.

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