Schlicht

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff as a heading or at the return of a plain melody, often softened with a second word (“Schlicht, aber warm”). In bilingual editions it sits beside its Italian twin, semplice. It lasts until another expression word.

How Composers Use It

Schlicht is plainness as a virtue: an unadorned line, honest tone, no portamento or sentimental lingering. Mahler uses it for moments of artless grief, where understatement says more than espressivo. It overlaps almost completely with einfach, leaning toward the modest and unpretentious. Qualify it with aber when plainness should not turn cold, as in “schlicht, aber warm”.

Example

Mahler, Kindertotenlieder, “Oft denk’ ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen”, voice, m. 46: “schlicht” beside “semplice” and “a tempo, nicht eilen”; at m. 5 the same part reads “Schlicht, aber warm”.

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