Sorrowful

What it means

Schmerzlich is the German equivalent of doloroso and calls for a painful, suffering expression. The music is to express pain without needing to become loud or violent.

Among the words for sorrow, the differences lie in the colouring. Wehmütig means gentle, backward-looking sorrow, lamentabile the uttered lament, schwermütig the weighing-down sadness. Schmerzlich designates the pain itself — present, felt, often with a sharp edge.

Like all German character words, the term is not strictly defined. It states the composer's intent and leaves the means to the performer.

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 minor harmony, chromaticism, suspensions, and sighing figures.

Musical use

The designation is used in songs with a corresponding text, in slow movements, and in sections that present a painful moment within a larger context. In the song and piano literature of the nineteenth century it belongs among the frequent performance words.

Wagner uses German expressive markings of this kind consistently in his scores. It stands above all in the music of the Romantic era, for instance in Schumann and Wagner. The tone is dark and tense, the tempo usually slow, the phrasing expressive with stretchings at important points. Sighing figures, suspensions, and chromatic lines carry the pain musically. Bear in mind that the expression stays genuine and does not tip into the sentimental: the...

Performance practice

Look for the expression in the dissonances and their resolutions, not in the volume. Give suspensions weight and let the resolution yield. Lead chromatic lines with tension. And keep the tempo calm, without dragging — pain works most strongly when it is performed with restraint.