Wehmütig

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff at the head of a song or piece, or at a passage of tender regret, usually joined to a tempo word. Nineteenth-century prints may use the old spelling wehmüthig. It lasts until another character word.

Also spelled: wehmuetig, wehmüthig

How Composers Use It

Wehmut is gentle, longing sadness — grief softened by memory rather than lament. Ask for it where the music looks back: a soft dynamic, an unhurried tempo, a singing line that leans into its appoggiaturas without weeping. It is lighter than klagend and more personal than mesto. Schumann gave the feeling a song title, Wehmut, in his Liederkreis, Op. 39.

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