Now, I may be making a fool of myself because the answer is really obvious but I don't know what un poco lugubre means (I know the first part but not lugubre!)

I have looked in the "little red book" (Rudiments of music) and the AB guide to music Theory G1 -5 but its not in there. I can't find my G6 -8 book so can't check that.

Anyone?

A bit lugubrious ?

Chris

Exactly what I think!

Oh, and the OED concurs, that lugubre = lugubrious (lugubre being an 'obselete' version)
lugubre = lugubrious = doleful, mournful, sorrowful.

So - "a bit sadly"

Hm Liszt wrote a piece called 'La Lugubre Gondola' its on a Brendel CD I have. I concur with mournful .

Yes..it's lugubrious, sad, mournful..

I'd go for slightly lubricated...
(joke! )

half a bottle ...

yes you're right a little lugubrious.

When you get terms like that its often as good to look up a word like lugubruois which actually is very onamatapoeic in a thesaurus to check you've got the sense of it right.

There are times when a good dictionary and thesaurus are better than the theory books, especially when it comes to obscure french and german terms which are not covered in any of the grades 1-8 and you suddenly come accross them and think "what the #### does that one mean?" The composer spoke that language and new precisely what it meant so treat is as a language exercise rather than pure theory.