sotto voce

Sotto voce is Italian for 'under the voice' — from sotto (under, below, from Latin subtus, related to sub) and voce (voice, from Latin vox, vocis). In music, it is a direction to sing or play very quietly, almost in an undertone — softer than piano (quiet) and with the added quality of being intimate, restrained, and seemingly suppressed rather than merely reduced in volume. In Italian and then in English general usage, sotto voce describes a manner of speaking that is deliberately lowered, hushed, or murmured — said in an undertone so that not everyone present can hear it.

The musical use of sotto voce reflects a distinction Italian notation made between different kinds of quietness. The word piano (soft) indicated a general reduction in volume. Pianissimo (very soft) intensified that reduction. But sotto voce carried a different quality: not just soft but internalized, as if the performer were suppressing the voice rather than simply producing it more quietly. The effect is one of privacy or secrecy — the note or phrase seems almost not intended for the audience, seems to be something held back from full expression. Composers used sotto voce for moments of grief, reflection, or withdrawal — the musical equivalent of a character who speaks without wanting to be heard.

Verdi was particularly skilled in the dramatic use of sotto voce. In his operas, a character's sotto voce aside — addressed to another character but not to the whole theater — creates the sensation of overhearing something private. The audience is brought into a confidence the other characters on stage may not share. Puccini continued this technique, and the sotto voce became a standard device for the aside, the secret, the withheld emotion. In Wagner's music dramas, which are less dependent on the aside convention, sotto voce is less prominent; the distinction reflects a fundamental difference in how Italian and German operatic traditions handle the relationship between performer, character, and audience.

In English, sotto voce crossed from music into general usage to describe any remark made in a deliberately lowered voice — a comment made quietly so as not to be overheard by everyone present, or a remark added parenthetically and almost as if to oneself. 'She muttered something sotto voce that he didn't quite catch.' The phrase functions as an adverb: 'he added, sotto voce, that he didn't believe a word of it.' This English use preserves the Italian musical meaning — under the voice, held back, not quite fully spoken — and the phrase has been used in English prose since the eighteenth century.