Passionate

What it means

Leidenschaftlich is the German equivalent of appassionato and calls for a performance of great feeling and inner agitation. What is meant is an expression that does not hold back: wide dynamic arcs, urgent movement, intense sound.

Leidenschaftlich differs from empfindungsvoll, which means heartfelt involvement, through degree: feeling can be restrained, passion presses outward. It differs from feurig, which calls for temperament and verve, through the depth of the agitation — fire can be cheerful, passion is serious.

The Italian noun passione designates the same attitude; con passione has the same meaning as appassionato.

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 widely spanned melodic lines, large interval leaps, dense accompaniment, and pronounced dynamics.

Musical use

The marking is used in movements and sections of great intensity, especially in the music of the nineteenth century, in which personal expression becomes the central concern. It stands over outer movements of sonatas, over songs with a corresponding text, and over intensifications in which a tension discharges.

The marking stands above all in the music of the Romantic era, in Schumann, Brahms, and Wagner. Passion lives from tension and release: whoever plays constantly forte loses the effect.

Performance practice

Use the whole dynamic range and plan the arcs so that climaxes work as such. Lead the line with intensity, without pressing the tone. Give the expression time, but do not lose the pulse — passion works most strongly when it stays reined in. And bring out the large leaps and dissonances, for they carry the agitation.