Languishing

What it means

Ermattend (“growing weary”) is a German performance marking and asks that the music gradually lose strength: tempo and volume fall back, the motion becomes tired. The image of weariness means more than a mere slackening — it carries the sense that the energy is running out.

In substance the word corresponds to the Italian calando or morendo, which both concern dynamics and tempo at once. It differs from perdendosi, which means a losing of oneself, through the cause: there the sound dissolves, here the motion flags.

The marking is to be distinguished from a mere ritardando, which concerns only the tempo, and from decrescendo, which means only the volume.

In the notation

The word stands above the staff at the point from which it applies, in German-language editions in place of an Italian marking. A decrescendo hairpin or a dashed line may be added. The effect usually extends to the end of the section.

Musical use

The designation is used at the end of movements and sections that are not to conclude but to run out, and in transitions that lead from a lively into a calm part. In the song and piano literature of the nineteenth century it stands over passages where the text deals with tiredness or slackening. As a counterpart to the urging words it belongs to the means by which courses of tension are shaped.

The instruction describes a gradual slackening of strength, similar to the Italian morendo. Tempo and volume are drawn back at the same time until the music seems exhausted. It usually stands at the end of phrases or movements. Related in Italian is morendo.

Performance practice

Connect tempo and dynamics and distribute both over the whole stretch; a sudden slackening seems like a break. Keep reserve for the last bars so that the end can still fall back further. Take care that the tone carries despite the drawing back. And let the motion go out instead of breaking it off.