Melancholy

What it means

Schwermütig is a German performance marking and calls for a weighing-down, sad expression. The music is to seem as if a weight lay upon it: slow, muted, without upswing.

Among the words for sorrow, the differences lie in the colouring. Wehmütig means a gentle, backward-looking sorrow, schmerzlich present pain, beklemmt narrowness and oppression. Schwermütig designates the lasting, weighing-down sadness — not a single pain but a mood.

The closest Italian equivalent is mesto; the table entry points to doloroso, which, however, stresses the pain more strongly.

In the notation

The word stands above the staff at the beginning of a movement or section, in German-language editions in place of an Italian marking, and applies until a new marking. It is often found together with a slow tempo, a low register, minor harmony, and quiet dynamics.

Musical use

The designation is used in songs with a corresponding text, in slow movements, and in character pieces of the piano literature. In nineteenth-century music, which names states of mind precisely, it belongs among the frequent performance words. It often stands over music whose movement circles rather than advances.

The instruction calls for a melancholy, sombre performance with a slow tempo, a dark tone, and a depressed mood. It is typical of German Romantic music and corresponds to the Italian malinconico. Low registers, falling lines, and minor harmony support the expression. Bear in mind that the melancholy does not pass into standstill: even slow, m...

Performance practice

Keep the tempo calm and steady; the heaviness arises from the even gait, not from stretching. Choose a dark tone colour and pull back the vibrato. Avoid intensifications unless they are notated, and let the phrases rather fall than rise. And keep the tone sustaining despite the restraint — melancholy is not powerlessness.