Appassionato

What it means

Appassionato (Italian, from the verb appassionare, “to make passionate, to move deeply”) is a performance direction calling for a passionate expression carried by strong feeling. It demands less a specific tempo or dynamic level than an inner attitude: heightened emotional intensity and an urgent, often fluctuating expression.

The term is best known through the nickname of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57, which has been called “Appassionata” since a posthumous edition, although Beethoven himself never gave it this title.

Musical use

Appassionato is usually added to a tempo or character marking, as in “allegro appassionato” or “con espressione appassionata,” intensifying the emotional content demanded of a movement or passage. The marking is often accompanied by a wider dynamic range, expressive rubato, and pronounced, urgent, song-like phrasing.

Appassionato should be distinguished from related but milder expression markings such as con espressione or con affetto: while these call for a generally expressive or heartfelt shaping, appassionato implies a heightened, often almost overflowing intensity.

Performance practice

In a passage marked appassionato, express the required passion not merely through greater volume but above all through agogic freedom, phrasing, and a deliberately heightened tone, so the expression carries without becoming uncontrolled or overwrought.