Weinerlich

As Printed on a Score

Printed over a vocal line or phrase, lower-case, to colour that phrase; it lapses at the next character or tempo word, as with the zurückhaltend that follows it in Wolf.

How Composers Use It

Tearful, whimpering — in German often slightly comic or self-pitying, not the noble grief of schmerzlich or lacrimoso. Wolf uses it to characterise a speaker, so the singer acts the line. Choose it when the listener should hear the weeping as a character’s tone of voice; for sincere grief, a different word serves better.

Example

Wolf, Eichendorff-Lieder, “Unfall”, voice, m. 15: “weinerlich” at p, a bar before “zurückhaltend”, in a song headed “Gemächlich”.

Related Terms