Doloroso
Painful, plaintive.
What it means
Doloroso means “painful” and asks for a plaintive, sorrowful expression. The word goes back to dolore, pain, and belongs to the character designations that name an affect instead of a tempo.
Within this group the differences lie in the colouring. Lamentabile and lamentoso mean the lament, that is, pain that is uttered; flebile the tearful; mesto quiet sadness. Doloroso designates the pain itself, without fixing whether it is uttered or remains restrained. The German equivalent is schmerzlich.
The marking usually stands as an addition to a tempo word and influences it: a painful performance is as a rule not quick.
In the notation
The word is written in italics above the first staff of a movement or section and can become part of the movement's name. It applies until a new marking. It is often found together with minor harmony, sighing figures of two descending notes, chromaticism, and suspensions — means that lay out the affect in the notation.
Musical use
The designation belongs to the music of the Baroque, in which the depiction of affects was an express aim, and remains in use into the Romantic period. It stands over slow movements, over arias and songs with a corresponding text, and over middle sections that bring a break in mood. In funeral music it is particularly frequent.
The designation is typical of slow movements and songs of lament. It demands a dark, heavy tone, expressive phrasing, and often a held-back tempo. Sighing figures, suspensions, and chromatic lines support the expression. Related markings are lamentoso and dolente. Related is dolente, as in the Arioso dolente of Beethoven's piano sonata op. 110.
Performance practice
Bring out the dissonances: the expression lies in the suspensions and their resolutions, not in great volume. Play sighing figures with weight on the first note and yielding on the second. Keep the dynamics rather restrained; pain seems stronger when restrained than when loud. And give the lines time without losing the pulse.