# Expression markings



## John R Wilson (Aug 3, 2021)

Hey all, 

Were do general musical expression words go on a score? Such as if I want the Violins Con expression, or to indicate Sonore for the Horns, or an indication of Appassionato for the violins. Would this go above the staff were techniques are wrote or below the staff were expression is?


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## Woodie1972 (Aug 3, 2021)

Most of the time together with the dynamics.


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## John R Wilson (Aug 3, 2021)

Woodie1972 said:


> Most of the time together with the dynamics.


Thanks, that's what I thought. Just had seen some examples were it seemed to be above the staff.


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## Woodie1972 (Aug 4, 2021)

The way I think it should be done, is based on classical editions of symphonic music, that's how I like it and what I keep as guide for myself.
But if you write dolce, marcato, cantabile and so on above the staff, everybody will understand what you mean.


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## John R Wilson (Aug 4, 2021)

Woodie1972 said:


> The way I think it should be done, is based on classical editions of symphonic music, that's how I like it and what I keep as guide for myself.
> But if you write dolce, marcato, cantabile and so on above the staff, everybody will understand what you mean.


That's what slightly confuses me as wouldn't dolce and cantabile be more of an expression indication rather than a technique and thus go below the staff.


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## JT (Aug 4, 2021)

I'm not sure what your standard of reference is regarding this text, but I would position both expressions and technique above the staff. The only text that I would place below the staff is tempo alterations (accel., rall. etc.) and volume direction (cresc and diminuendo).


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## Woodie1972 (Aug 4, 2021)

I'm sorry for my initial answer; I misread your post. 

To me, playing in a professional orchestra, the way everything is written may depend somewhat, most of the time because of editions from different countries. But pretty much all of them have dynamics (of course) and expressions below the staff and tempo alterations above the staff (sometimes below, but not very often).
Indications like staccato and marcato can be placed both above or below, but playing styles like dolce and cantabile below. 
Also, I've entered handwritten scores in Finale and Sibelius for years for several publishers and all of the publishers used pretty much the same guidelines as I wrote above. I think we might use terms like expressions for different things, so maybe there is some misunderstanding. Anyway, if you're really interested in digging into this, there are several books and websites regarding this topic, with guidelines to create a proper looking score, maybe you could check this to learn more about it.


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## Woodie1972 (Aug 4, 2021)

John R Wilson said:


> That's what slightly confuses me as wouldn't dolce and cantabile be more of an expression indication rather than a technique and thus go below the staff.


Yes, they are, and therefore should be placed below the staff. But as I wrote, I think there is some confusion about what the difference is. This is also because library developers like to call all these techniques expressions, which already gives incorrect info.


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## mducharme (Aug 6, 2021)

John R Wilson said:


> Thanks, that's what I thought. Just had seen some examples were it seemed to be above the staff.


Often when these types of indications appear above the stave they are actually a custom tempo indicator. For instance instead of "Allegro (q=120)" you might have "Enthusiastically (q=120)". I often do this myself if describing the general mood of a particular section, to avoid having to include the expression indication italicized below each stave. I still prefer using the expression indication if it is describing the mood/style of a single instrument.

It is much the same thing as tempo modifications. Some house styles have tempo modifications like rit. and accel. italicized below the stave, unlike regular subito tempo changes that are above the stave in bold non-italic font. You see this in John Williams Hal Leonard scores for instance. I personally don't like this very much because you end up cluttering the score with "rit." markings vertically that don't really need to be there if it is where the tempo change is, and there is a logic to always putting any tempo change in bold roman text above the top stave and above the strings.


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