Teneramente

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff or over a part as a character word, alone, after a tempo word (“Andante teneramente”) or among other directions (“teneramente, molto cantabile”), at the start of a lyrical passage. It holds until the character changes; dynamics are printed separately and are usually soft.

How Composers Use It

Teneramente asks for tenderness: soft-edged attacks, a warm and intimate tone, gently shaped phrases. It is warmer and more personal than dolce, which describes sweetness of sound, and less effusive than con passione. As an adverb it can follow a tempo word directly, as in Brahms’s Intermezzo Op. 118 No. 2; Tchaikovsky stacks it with molto cantabile and con espansione for the lyrical second theme of the Pathétique’s first movement.

Example

Brahms, Intermezzo in A major, Op. 118 No. 2: the piece is headed “Andante teneramente”, with p at the opening.

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