Wenig

As Printed on a Score

Usually printed as “ein wenig” before the word it softens — ein wenig zurückhaltend, ein wenig breiter, ein wenig nachlassend — and lasts as long as that word. Without ein it means “little” rather than “a little”: wenig Bogen asks for little bow. A parenthesis can measure it against an earlier tempo (ein wenig gemäßigter als im Anfang).

How Composers Use It

The German un poco, close to etwas and often felt as slightly smaller: a nuance a listener should sense more than notice. Wolf uses it for small shadings of tempo inside a song (ein wenig zurückhaltend). Do not double it (ein wenig etwas), and if the change must carry across an orchestra, etwas or a new tempo word is clearer.

Example

Wolf, Eichendorff-Lieder, “Der Soldat I”, voice and piano, m. 45: “ein wenig zurückhaltend”, with “zart” in the voice and p in the piano, in a song headed “Frisch”.

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