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Moderate, in a singing style.
Printed above the first system as a heading, sometimes extended — Moderato cantabile molto espressivo — and in force until the next tempo word. Beethoven may add further words — in Op. 110 it comes with con amabilità and the German gloss (sanft) — which belong to the same instruction.
A moderate, singing tempo: the melody leads, legato and vocally shaped, at a pace that flows without hurry. It suits lyrical first movements and songful pieces that need more motion than an Andante. Make sure the melody is genuinely singable in its phrasing; the marking asks the player to sing, and the notes must allow it.
Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110, first movement, m. 1: “Moderato cantabile molto espressivo”, with “(sanft)” and “p con amabilità”.
Moderato cantabile is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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