Dynamics

What it means

Dynamics designates the volume of music and the study of its gradations. Alongside pitch, duration, and tone colour it is one of the basic properties of sound and is notated with signs and words of its own.

The basic levels form a series from soft to loud: pianissimo, piano, mezzopiano, mezzoforte, forte, fortissimo, extended to both sides by pianississimo and fortississimo. To these are added the transitions — crescendo and decrescendo — as well as the accent signs for individual notes, for instance sforzando.

Bear in mind that all these markings are relative. Forte means something different in a string quartet than in an orchestra, and what sounds quiet depends on the room, the scoring, and the context. The signs give relations, not measurable values.

In the notation

Dynamic signs stand below the staff, in vocal parts above the text, and apply from the note under which they stand until the next marking. The letters are set in bold italics. Hairpins indicate transitions. In scores the dynamics stand separately in each part, since the instruments can be graded differently.

Musical use

Until the seventeenth century dynamics are hardly notated; the gradation results from scoring and texture. In the Baroque, terraced dynamics with stepwise change prevail, which also corresponds to the possibilities of organ and harpsichord. With the fortepiano and the Classical orchestra, flowing transitions become standard. In the music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the scale is extended to both sides and dynamics becomes a means of form in its own right.

Performance practice

Read dynamic markings in relation to one another and not as absolute values: first look for the quietest and the loudest spot of the piece and divide up the space in between. Take care that volume and tempo stay independent. In an ensemble, check how your level relates to the others. And remember that tone colour and volume are connected — in the soft as in the loud, the tone should keep its quality.