Sombre

As Printed on a Score

Printed over the passage it colours — above a vocal line or between piano staves — usually at p or pp, and kept until the colour brightens or a new character word appears.

How Composers Use It

Sombre asks for dark tone: low register favoured, little brilliance, a heavier, covered sound. In singing it means a darker vowel colour; for strings, bowing nearer the fingerboard and less vibrato. It describes colour rather than loudness, so a sombre passage can still grow — Debussy follows it with a crescendo and stringendo — and it contrasts naturally with clair.

Example

Debussy, Ariettes oubliées, “Spleen”, voice, m. 18: “sombre” at p, two bars before a crescendo and stringendo.

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