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Dynamics (music)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In music, dynamics are instructions in musical notation to the performer about hearing the
loudness of a note or phrase. More generally, dynamics may also include other aspects of the
execution of a given piece.

Contents
1 Relative loudness
1.1 Sudden changes and accented notes
1.2 Gradual changes
2 Words/phrases indicating changes of dynamics
3 History
4 See also
5 References

Relative loudness
The two basic dynamic indications in music are:

p or piano, meaning "soft".[1][2]

f or forte, meaning "loud".[1][3]

More subtle degrees of loudness or softness are indicated by:

mp, standing for mezzo-piano, meaning "half soft".

mf, standing for mezzo-forte, meaning "half loud".[4]

Use of up to three consecutive fs or ps is also common:

pp, standing for "pianissimo" and meaning "very soft".

ff, standing for "fortissimo" and meaning "very loud".
ppp, standing for "pianississimo" and meaning "very very soft".
fff, standing for "fortississimo" and meaning "very very loud".[4]

A less common dynamic marking used especially by Johannes Brahms is:

poco forto (only rarely abbreviated to pf because of possible confusion with pianoforte),
which (according to Brahms) means with the character of forte, but the sound of piano.[5]

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Some pieces contain dynamic designations

with more than three consecutive fs or ps. In
Holst's The Planets, ffff occurs twice in Mars
and once in Uranus often punctuated by organ
and fff occurs several times throughout the
work. It also appears in Heitor Villa-Lobos'
Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4 (Prelude), and in
Liszt's Fantasy and Fugue on the chorale "Ad
nos, ad salutarem undam". The Norman Dello
Joio Suite for Piano ends with a crescendo to
a ffff, and Tchaikovsky indicated a bassoon
solo pppppp (6 p) in his Pathétique
Symphony and ffff in passages of his 1812 Note Velocity is a MIDI measurement of the speed
Overture and the 2nd movement of his Fifth that the key travels from its rest position to
Symphony. completely depressed, with 127, the largest value in a
7-bit number, being instantaneous, and meaning as
Igor Stravinsky used ffff at the end of the strong as possible.
finale of the Firebird Suite. ffff is also found
in a prelude by Rachmaninoff, op.3-2.
Shostakovich even went as loud as fffff (5 fs) in his fourth symphony. Gustav Mahler, in the third
movement of his Seventh Symphony, gives the celli and basses a marking of fffff (5 fs), along with
a footnote directing 'pluck so hard that the strings hit the wood'. On another extreme, Carl Nielsen,
in the second movement of his Symphony No. 5, marked a passage for woodwinds a diminuendo to
ppppp (5 ps).

Another more extreme dynamic is in György Ligeti's Études No. 13 (Devil's Staircase), which has
at one point a ffffff (6 fs) and progresses to a ffffffff (8 fs). In Ligeti's Études No. 9, he uses
pppppppp (8 ps). In the baritone passage "Era la notte" from his opera Otello, Verdi uses
pppp. Steane (1971) and others suggest that such markings are in reality a strong reminder to less
than subtle singers to at least sing softly rather than an instruction to the singer actually to attempt a
pppp.

Dynamic indications of this kind are relative, not absolute. mp does not indicate an exact level of
volume, it merely indicates that music in a passage so marked should be a little louder than p and a
little quieter than mf. Interpretations of dynamic levels are left mostly to the performer; in the
Barber Piano Nocturne, a phrase beginning pp is followed by a diminuendo leading to a mp
marking. Another instance of performer's discretion in this piece occurs when the left hand is
shown to crescendo to a f, and then immediately after marked p while the right hand plays the
melody f. It has been speculated that this is used simply to remind the performer to keep the
melody louder than the harmonic line in the left hand. In some music notation programs, there are
default MIDI key velocity values associated with these indications, but more sophisticated
programs allow users to change these as needed. Apple's Logic Pro 9 uses the following values:
ppp (16), pp (32), p (48), mp (64), mf (80), f (96), ff (112), fff (127).[6]

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Sudden changes and accented notes

Sudden changes in dynamics may be notated by adding the word subito (Italian for suddenly) as a
prefix or suffix to the new dynamic notation. Accented notes (notes to emphasize or play louder
compared to surrounding notes) can be notated sforzando, sforzato, forzando or forzato
(abbreviated sfz, sf, or fz) ("forcing" or "forced").

Accents can also be notated using the sign >, placed above or below the head of the note. The >
sign indicates an accent only, and is neither related to nor derived from the sign for diminuendo,
even though the signs are of a roughly similar shape.

Sforzando (or sforzato or forzando or forzato), indicates a

forceful accent and is abbreviated as sf, sfz or fz. There is
often confusion surrounding these markings and whether or not
there is any difference in the degree of accent. However all of
these indicate the same expression, depending on the dynamic
level,[7] and the extent of the Sforzando is determined purely by
the performer.

The fortepiano notation fp indicates a forte followed

immediately by piano. Sforzando piano (sfzp or sfp) indicates Sforzando (sfz) notation
a sforzando followed immediately by piano; in general, any two
dynamic markings may be treated similarly.

Rinforzando, rfz or rf (literally "reinforcing") indicates that several notes, or a short phrase, are to
be emphasized.

Gradual changes

Three Italian words are used to show gradual changes in volume; crescendo (abbreviated cresc.)
translates as "growing", and diminuendo (abbreviated dim.) or decrescendo (abbreviated to
decresc.) mean "gradually becoming softer". Signs sometimes referred to as "hairpins"[8] are also
used to stand for these words (See image). If the angle lines open up ("<"), then the indication is to
get louder; if they close gradually (">"), the indication is to get softer. The following notation
indicates music starting moderately strong, then becoming gradually stronger and then gradually
quieter:

Hairpins are usually written below the staff, but are sometimes found above, especially in music for
singers or in music with multiple melody lines being played by a single performer. They tend to be
used for dynamic changes over a relatively short space of time (at most a few bars), while cresc.,

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decresc. and dim. are generally used for changes over a longer period. Word directions can be
extended with dashes to indicate over what time the event should occur, which may be as long as
multiple pages.

For greater changes in dynamics, cresc. molto and dim. molto are often used, where the molto
means much. Similarly, for slow changes poco cresc. and poco dim. are used, where poco translates
as a little.

A good example of a piece that uses both gradual changes and quick changes in dynamics is Pyotr
Ilyich Tchaikovsky's fantasy overture, Romeo and Juliet.

Words/phrases indicating changes of dynamics

(In Italian unless otherwise indicated)

al niente: to nothing; fade to silence. Sometimes written as n

calando: literally "decreasing", means simultaneous reduction of volume and tempo, same as
French en diminuant and Italian dim. e rall. (diminuendo and rallentando)
calmando: becoming calmer
crescendo: becoming louder
dal niente: from nothing; out of silence
decrescendo or diminuendo: becoming softer
fortepiano: loud and then immediately soft
fortissimo piano: very loud and then immediately soft
in rilievo: in relief (French en dehors: outwards); indicates that a particular instrument or part
is to play louder than the others so as to stand out over the ensemble. In the circle of Arnold
Schoenberg, this expression had been replaced by the letter "H" (for German Hauptstimme),
with an added horizontal line at the letter's top, pointing to the right, the end of this passage to
be marked by the symbol "┐".
mezzoforte piano: moderately strong and then immediately soft
morendo: dying away (may also indicate a tempo change)
marcato: stressed, pronounced
perdendo or perdendosi: losing volume, fading into nothing, dying away
pianoforte: soft and then immediately strong
sforzando piano: with marked emphasis, then immediately soft
sotto voce: in an undertone (whispered or unvoiced)[9]
smorzando: becoming muffled or toned down

History
The Renaissance composer Giovanni Gabrieli was one of the first to indicate dynamics in music
notation, but dynamics were used sparingly by composers until the late 18th century. Bach used
some dynamic terms, including forte, piano, più piano, and pianissimo (although written out as full

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words), and in some cases it may be that ppp was considered to mean pianissimo in this period.

The fact that the harpsichord could play only "terraced" dynamics (either loud or soft, but not in
between), and the fact that composers of the period did not mark gradations of dynamics in their
scores, has led to the "somewhat misleading suggestion that baroque dynamics are 'terraced
dynamics'," writes Robert Donington.[10] In fact, baroque musicians constantly varied dynamics.
"Light and shade must be constantly introduced... by the incessant interchange of loud and soft,"
wrote Johann Joachim Quantz in 1752.[11] In addition to this, the harpsichord in fact becomes
louder or softer depending on the thickness of the musical texture (four notes are louder than two).
This allowed composers such as Bach to build dynamics directly into their compositions, without
the need for notation.

In the Romantic period, composers greatly expanded the vocabulary for describing dynamic
changes in their scores. Where Haydn and Mozart specified six levels (pp to ff), Beethoven used
also ppp and fff (the latter less frequently), and Brahms used a range of terms to describe the
dynamics he wanted. In the slow movement of the trio for violin, horn and piano (Opus 40), he uses
the expressions ppp, molto piano, and quasi niente to express different qualities of quiet.

See also
Accent (music) Look up fortissimo or
Glossary of musical terminology decrescendo in
Wiktionary, the free
References dictionary.

1. Randel, Don Michael (2003). The Harvard Dictionary of Music (4th ed.). Cambridge, MA, US: Harvard
University Press Reference Library.
2. "Piano". Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
3. "Forte". Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
4. "Dynamics". Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
5. An Enigmatic Marking Explained (http://www.jeffreysolow.com/Writings
/AnEnigmaticMarkingExplainedVcS.doc), by Jeffrey Solow, Violoncello Society Newsletter, Spring
2000
6. "Apple Logic Pro 9 User Manual for MIDI Step Input Recording". Retrieved 2013-07-29.
7. Gerou, Tom; Lusk, Linda (1996). Essential Dictionary of Music Notation: The Most Practical and
Concise Source for Music Notation. Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Music Publishing. pp. 37–38.
ISBN 978-0882847306.
8. Kennedy, Michael and Bourne, Joyce: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music (1996), entry
"Hairpins".
9. "Sotto voce" in Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1946, New York: The MacMillan
Company)
10. Donington, Robert: Baroque Music (1982) WW Norton, 1982. ISBN 0-393-30052-8. Page 32.
11. Donington, Robert: Baroque Music (1982) WW Norton, 1982. ISBN 0-393-30052-8. Page 33.

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