Tremolando

As Printed on a Score

Printed as a word over a piano or string part where the trembling begins, alongside or instead of the tremolo strokes through the stems; it lasts for the passage written in tremolo notation. Its abbreviation trem. is shared with tremolo, which means the same.

How Composers Use It

In piano writing it asks for rapid alternation between the notes of a chord or octave — an orchestral shimmer the Romantics used for agitation or for a hushed, held breath. In strings it is the same as tremolo. Write the alternation out with beams or strokes so the pitches and speed are clear, and let the word set the character.

Example

Bizet, Feuilles d’album, “Rose d’amour”, piano, m. 52: “tremolando” at ppp, just after a “dim. molto”, with “colla voce” two bars later.

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