In music,
cantabile , an
Italian word, means literally "singable" or "songlike". In instrumental music, it is a particular style of playing designed to imitate the
human voice. For 18th-century composers, cantabile is often synonymous with "cantando" (singing), and indicates a measured
tempo and flexible,
legato playing. For later composers, particularly in
piano music, cantabile is the drawing out of one particular musical line against the accompaniment (compare
counterpoint).
Felix Mendelssohn's six books of
Songs Without Words (Lieder ohne Worte) are short lyrical piano pieces with song-like melodies written between 1829 and 1845. A modern example is an instrumental by Harry James & His Orchestra, called "Trumpet Blues and Cantabile".