Flautando

Flautando is Italian for ‘fluting’ or ‘flute-like’. As a string performance direction it instructs the performer to produce a soft, hollow, flute-like tone — similar in character to sul tasto, with which it is often used interchangeably.

The technique is achieved by bowing lightly, often over the fingerboard, with minimal weight. The result is a tone that suppresses upper partials and emphasizes the fundamental — producing a sound that resembles a flute’s gentle, breathy quality.

Flautando is a coloristic effect rather than a dynamic. It does not necessarily mean soft (though it usually is); it means flute-like in timbre. Composers reach for it when they want a string section to imitate a wind instrument’s tone.

Italian, gerund of flautare (‘to flute’), from flauto (‘flute’), itself from Latin flatus (‘breath’).

Light bow weight, slow speed, contact over the fingerboard. The tone should feel breathy, hollow, almost wind-like.