Very

As Printed on a Score

Never stands alone: it sits inside an English direction just before the word it strengthens — Very slow, very soft, Very fast and light, tempo very free — and lasts exactly as long as that word. It is printed wherever that word belongs: above the staff with tempo and character words, below it in dynamic phrases.

How Composers Use It

The plain-English molto, with the same risk: an intensifier means nothing if every direction carries one. Keep it for the far end of a scale, so that Very slow is slower than any plain Slow in the piece, and add a metronome mark when the exact degree matters. Avoid mixing languages inside one phrase (very Allegro); write molto with Italian words and very with English ones.

Example

Warlock, Saudades, “Heracleitus”, voice, m. 1: “tempo very free - the voice murmuring to itself” stands beside “Slow” and “(about 80)”, so very qualifies the freedom, not the speed.

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