Soave
Gentle, soft.
What it means
Soave means “gentle, lovely, soft” and calls for a mild, pleasant performance. What is meant is a sound without hardness, with round tone production, bound lines, and restrained dynamics.
The marking concerns expression and usually stands as an addition to a tempo word. It affects the tempo indirectly, because a gentle performance does not hurry.
Among the words for gentleness the differences lie in the colouring. Dolce and dolcissimo mean sweetness, delicato fineness and delicacy, soave mildness and loveliness. The boundaries are fluid, and composers do not use the words strictly distinguished. The German equivalent is sanft or lieblich.
In the notation
The word stands in italics above the staff, usually after a tempo word, and applies until a new marking. It is often found together with quiet dynamics, bound melodies, and plain accompaniment.
Musical use
The designation is used in lyrical sections, in arias and songs of a gentle character, and in instrumental movements whose appeal lies in the mildness of the sound. In the Italian vocal music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it is widespread, later also in instrumental music.
The instruction calls for a gentle, soft, and lovely performance with a calm tempo, bound articulation, and a warm tone. It is related to dolce but stresses grace and mildness even more strongly. It is found in arias, character pieces, and slow movements. Hard accents and sharp attacks contradict the character; wind players attack softly, string players play with a calm bow and little pressure. An even, flowing legato carries the line. Soave describes no tempo range but usually stands in calm movements and with quiet dynamics. Mozart, too, uses the word in arias, for instance in Così fan tutte in the trio “Soave sia il vento.”
Performance practice
Watch for a soft attack of every note: gentleness arises there and not in the volume. Lead the line bound and avoid accents. Keep the accompaniment soft and even. And keep the tone sustaining — gentle does not mean weak.