Pensive

What it means

Nachdenklich is a German performance marking and calls for a musing, inward-turned performance. The music should sound as though it pauses to reflect on something: calm, without outward effect, with time for rests.

In substance the word corresponds to the Italian pensieroso or meditativo.

It differs from verhalten, which means restraint, through direction: restraint holds something back, thoughtfulness turns inward. It differs from wehmütig in that no sadness need resonate — reflection is not necessarily sad.

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 slow tempo markings, quiet dynamics, rests, and fermatas.

Musical use

The designation is used in character pieces, in songs with a corresponding text, and in sections that depict a moment of pausing — for instance before a close or between two moved parts. In the piano music of the nineteenth century it belongs among those markings with which composers head short pieces of a personal tone.

The instruction calls for a collected, inward-turned performance with a calm tempo and restrained dynamics. It stands in German Romantic scores, for instance in piano pieces by Schumann. Small pauses and stretchings at phrase endings give the impression of pausing. Italian equivalents are pensieroso or meditativo. Bear in mind that the music, despite its quiet character, does not fall apart: the l...

Performance practice

Give the rests and fermatas their weight; silence belongs to the expression. Hold the tone back and avoid accents that project outward. Shape with small agogic freedoms, as if the music hesitated at certain points. And still hold the line together — reflection is a process, not a disintegration.