Naïvement

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff or over a vocal line, at a phrase that should sound simple and childlike. It sets the manner until another character marking replaces it.

Also spelled: naivement

How Composers Use It

It asks for innocence: plain, unaffected delivery without rubato, swelling or knowing irony. French song composers use it where the text speaks with a child’s or a simple person’s directness. It works by contrast with more sophisticated markings around it — Boulanger sets it two bars after avec charme. Give the dynamic separately, and avoid stacking it with expressive words that would undermine its simplicity.

Example

Boulanger, Clairières dans le ciel, “Deux ancolies”, voice, m. 9: “naïvement”, two bars after “avec charme”.