Mit Empfindung

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff over a phrase (“mit Empfindung”) or within a heading (“…durchaus mit Empfindung und Ausdruck”); bilingual editions set con sentimento beside it. It holds for the phrase or section it marks.

How Composers Use It

Empfindung is feeling or sensibility: the marking asks the player to let personal feeling shape the line — tender rubato, warm tone — rather than to add drama. It runs through German music from Beethoven’s heading for the first movement of Op. 90 to Mahler’s Adagietto. Use it for intimate, lyrical moments; for outward intensity, leidenschaftlich or espressivo is stronger.

Example

Mahler, Symphony No. 5, fourth movement (Adagietto), first violins, m. 23: “mit Empfindung” at pp, two bars after a rit.

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