Nobilmente

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff as a character word, often joined to a tempo word or a second character word (“Andante. Nobilmente e semplice”), at the start of a movement or a broad theme. It governs the manner of playing until the next character word and is especially associated with English scores around 1900.

How Composers Use It

Nobilmente asks for nobility: a broad, dignified line, full but unforced tone, a steady tempo without heaviness. It is so bound up with Elgar, who used it for his big lyrical themes, that it now signals that idiom, and using it invites the comparison. Where maestoso suggests majesty and display, nobilmente is warmer and more inward, a reason to pair it, as Elgar did, with semplice rather than with louder words.

Example

Elgar, Symphony No. 1 in A-flat major, Op. 55, first movement: the opening motto theme is marked “Andante. Nobilmente e semplice”, and the same theme returns at the close of the symphony.

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