Sonoro

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff or under a part, often in combination (“cantabile e sonoro”), to ask for full, resonant tone in a passage. It applies to that passage, usually alongside a dynamic printed below the staff, and gives way to a contrasting word such as dolce or a much softer dynamic.

How Composers Use It

Sonoro asks for resonance: a full, ringing sound that carries, which is not necessarily loud; a mezzo-forte can be sonoro. In piano writing it often means letting the pedal and the bass give a melody body; for strings, a full bow and firm contact. Use it where you want richness rather than force, and mark the dynamic as well, since sonoro alone leaves the level open.

Example

Quilter, “Come Away, Death”, from the Three Shakespeare Songs, Op. 6, piano, m. 33: “cantabile e sonoro”, two bars after an f; an mf follows two bars later.

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