Al niente

To nothing

An ordinary diminuendo leads from one level to a lower one, for example from f to p. Al niente (“to nothing”) sets the goal lower still: the sound is to decrease until it can no longer be heard. The mark comes at the end of a diminuendo and asks that the tone does not break off suddenly but passes into silence.

The sign

The usual sign is a closing hairpin (>) with a small circle at its tip. Alternatively the word “niente” or the letter “n” is written at the end of the hairpin. Both mean the same: the diminuendo goes down to silence. With a crescendo the starting point can correspondingly be a circle: then the tone begins out of nothing.

In practice

On the piano a tone dies away by itself. The art lies in choosing the touch so that the tone carries exactly as long as the passage lasts. With strings, winds and voice, on the other hand, the sound can be shaped actively and led into silence. If you do not pace your loudness well and get soft too early, you have nothing left to decrease at the end.

Common mistakes

• Disappearing too early: Nothing is the goal, not the beginning.
• Ending the tone abruptly: It should pass into silence.
• Reading the hairpin as a tempo mark: It concerns only the loudness.