Dynamics: music symbols explained
18 symbols and terms, each explained in a sentence or two — the same dictionary the free Artform score reader uses when you tap a marking on a real score.
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- ppppianississimo
- As quiet as you can play and still be heard. The softest marking in common use.
- pppianissimo
- Very quiet. Quieter than piano, and usually the softest a piece will ask for.
- ppiano
- Quiet. Italian for soft, and the same word the instrument is named after, because the piano could play both soft and loud when the harpsichord could not.
- mpmezzo piano
- Moderately quiet. A shade louder than piano: half-soft rather than soft.
- mfmezzo forte
- Moderately loud. Half-loud, and the usual middle of the range.
- fforte
- Loud. Italian for strong, which is nearer the intention than loud is: weight rather than volume.
- fffortissimo
- Very loud. Louder than forte, and the loudest most piano writing asks for.
- ffffortississimo
- As loud as the instrument will give you without the sound breaking.
- sfsforzando
- One note struck suddenly harder than everything around it. A jolt, not a new dynamic level.
- fpforte piano
- Loud, then immediately quiet. Strike the note firmly and drop away at once.
- rfrinforzando
- Reinforced: a short surge of weight across a few notes rather than a single accent.
- crescendo
- Growing: gradually louder.
- dimdiminuendo
- Diminishing: gradually quieter.
- Hairpin
- The long wedge under the stave. Opening to the right is a crescendo, closing is a diminuendo, and its length says how long the change takes.
- Terraced dynamics
- Loud and soft as steps rather than as slopes, with no crescendo between them. Baroque practice, and how a harpsichord has to work.
- Niente
- Nothing. A hairpin ending in a small circle means fade to actual silence, not to very quiet.
- Subito piano
- Suddenly quiet, usually right after a crescendo. The joke only works if you resist the growth the phrase promised.
- Molto crescendo
- A large growth, over a long span. Worth planning backwards from the arrival so it does not run out early.