Pastorale

Pastorale is Italian for ‘pastoral’ — referring to shepherds and the countryside. As a performance direction it instructs the performer to play in a pastoral style — rustic, idyllic, evocative of rural scenes, often with a sense of gentle simplicity.

The character is gentle and idyllic. Pastorale passages typically feature compound time signatures (6/8 or 12/8), drone-like accompaniments, simple melodic lines, and moderate tempos. The marking is associated with traditional pastoral music — Christmas pastorales, shepherds’ songs, idyllic countryside evocations.

The direction is found throughout the Baroque and beyond. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio features a pastorale; Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony is the Pastoral; Vaughan Williams’s Symphony No. 3 is the Pastoral Symphony. The mark implies a particular kind of musical evocation — rural, peaceful, idyllic.

Italian/Latin, from pastor (‘shepherd’).

Play with simple, idyllic warmth. Gentle dynamics, smooth phrasing, moderate tempo. The character is rustic but refined — country music heard from a poet’s window.