Suivez le chant

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the accompaniment, piano or orchestra, where it must follow the singer’s timing, often at a slow or free passage; the infinitive suivre le chant is also printed. It lasts until a tempo word (a tempo, en mesure) restores the beat.

Also spelled: suivre le chant

How Composers Use It

Suivez le chant is the French colla voce: the accompaniment gives up its own pulse and follows the singer’s rubato. Mark it where the voice is likely to stretch time — a high note, a declaimed phrase, a cadenza — and mark the return to tempo. A matching word in the voice part (librement, à volonté) explains why the accompaniment must follow.

Example

Satie, Socrate, “Mort de Socrate”, piano, m. 146: “suivre le chant”, in the bar where the voice is marked “très lent”.

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