Passione
With passion.
What it means
Passione means “passion” and appears as a performance instruction usually in the phrase con passione, “with passion.” Appassionato has the same meaning. It calls for a performance of great inner involvement and agitation.
What is meant is a bundling of means: widely spanned dynamic arcs, urgent movement, intense sound, distinct shaping of the tension curves. The marking concerns expression, not tempo.
The German equivalent is leidenschaftlich. Con passione differs from con fuoco or feurig, which mean temperament and verve, through the depth of the agitation. The word is also to be distinguished from the genre designation Passion, which designates a setting of the Passion story and goes back to the same Latin root.
In the notation
The phrase stands in italics above the staff, usually after a tempo word, and applies until a new marking. It is often found together with widely spanned melodic writing, large intervals, dense accompaniment, and pronounced dynamics.
Musical use
The instruction is used in 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, over songs and operatic scenes with a corresponding text, and over climaxes in which a tension discharges.
The instruction usually stands as con passione and calls for a passionate performance, related to appassionato. It is typical of Romantic music and of operatic arias. The expression lives from large dynamic arcs, a warm tone, and urgent movement at climaxes. Bear in mind that passion does not become mere volume: even in piano...
Performance practice
Use the whole dynamic range and plan the arcs so that climaxes have their effect. Lead the line with intensity, without pressing the tone. Give the expression time, but keep the pulse — passion works most strongly when it stays reined in. And bring out dissonances and large leaps, for they carry the agitation.