Espressivo
Put the music's tone first, not just the right notes
Related
Espressivo asks the player to put tone first: not merely the right notes, but every note saying something. It is close to cantabile but broader — cantabile stresses "singing", espressivo stresses "having content", and may include pause, accent, colour and flexibility of speed.
It is an open term: the page cannot specify "how much expression", only a direction. The usual mistake is to treat espressivo as "more vibrato, more crescendo" — real expression comes from the weight of the phrase, not from piled-on decoration.
Read deeper → cantabile
Sources
- espressivo 的表情含义与演奏传统，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Expression" 与 "Espressivo"；本文为原创表述
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