Merry

What it means

Lustig is a German performance marking and calls for a merry, carefree performance. The word means plain, uncomplicated joy — cheerful, without deeper meaning, without pathos.

Among the words for cheerfulness the differences lie in the colouring. Heiter means relaxed, balanced joy, giocoso the playful, scherzando the jesting with wit, gioioso radiant joy. Lustig is the most folk-like of these words and designates carefree merriness.

The marking concerns expression. It affects the tempo, because a merry performance is rarely slow, but it does not fix it.

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. It is often found over songs, dance movements, and pieces with clear rhythm, major harmony, and short articulation.

Musical use

The designation is used in folk and children's songs, in dance movements, in pedagogical literature, and in instrumental pieces of a folk-like character. In larger works it stands over movements or sections that strike a carefree tone, often as a counterpart to serious parts.

An example from the symphonic repertoire is the fifth movement of Mahler’s Third Symphony, “Es sungen drei Engel” on a text from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, headed Lustig im Tempo und keck im Ausdruck. As a word in titles it appears in Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, Op. 68, whose third movement is called “Lustiges Zusammensein der Landleute” (merry gathering of country folk), and in Richard Strauss’s tone poem Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28, of 1894–95. A too weighty sound contradicts the character, as does exaggerated haste.

Performance practice

Keep the articulation short and springy and the accents distinct. Play the accompaniment lightly, so that the movement does not become heavy. Avoid large dynamic arcs; high spirits arise from clarity and lightness. And keep the pulse stable — carefree does not mean imprecise.