Without

As Printed on a Score

Opens an English direction that removes something — without mute, without pedal, without slowing, without taking breath — printed at the point where it applies. For devices it cancels an earlier with-instruction and lasts until the device is called for again; for breathing or tempo it applies only to the spot it marks.

How Composers Use It

The English senza. It is the cleanest way to cancel a device and to forbid a habit performers bring to a passage, such as slowing at a cadence or breathing at a phrase end. Place a device cancellation where the player can act on it, with time to remove a mute or change a pedal, and make the span of any tempo or breathing instruction clear.

Example

Chaminade, “Tu me dirais”, voice, m. 39: “(without taking breath)”, printed in English in this edition, stands over a rit. at pp, with Tempo I in the next bar.

Related Terms