Portez la voix

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the vocal line at the interval to be carried, usually a leap within a slurred phrase. It applies only to that connection; the next phrase is sung normally unless the direction is repeated.

How Composers Use It

Portez la voix asks the singer to carry the voice across the interval — a portamento, the pitch gliding audibly from one note to the next. It was a normal expressive resource in nineteenth-century French song, and Bizet prints it several times in his songs, twice beside douloureux at f, both in “Adieux de l’hôtesse arabe”. Use it sparingly and on a specific interval: marked everywhere, it becomes a mannerism.

Example

Bizet, Feuilles d’album, “Adieux à Suzon”, voice, m. 12: “portez la voix” at p, just after a molto dim.

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