Trainez

As Printed on a Score

Printed over the voice or above the staff at the notes to be drawn out, as traînez or the unaccented trainez, or as the participle traînant. It usually covers a short span — a phrase ending or a few notes — and the tempo resumes at the next tempo marking, a suivez or an a tempo.

Also spelled: traînez, trainant, traînant

How Composers Use It

A deliberate drag: the performer lingers, letting notes hang behind the beat for a languid, lazy or teasing effect. In dance-based songs such as a habanera it shapes the characteristic sultry delay. French players also meet the word in the warning ne traînez pas, so when you mean it as an effect, mark exactly where the dragging starts and stops; for a plain holding back use retenez.

Example

Viardot, 6 Mélodies et une havanaise, “Havanaise” (VWV 1019), voice, m. 68: “trainez.”, printed unaccented between an f two bars earlier and an mf two bars later.