Forte

Loud, but relative

The page Dynamics names the levels from soft to loud: pianissimo, piano, mezzopiano, mezzoforte, forte and fortissimo. They are no exact measurements but points of reference. Forte means something different in a string quartet than in a large orchestra; what matters is the relationship to one another. The Notation symbols page describes forte as a full tone with a stronger touch, bow or breath. It is not “as loud as possible”, that would be fff. The scale runs ppp – pp – p – mp – mf – f – ff – fff, in Mahler, Strauss and Shostakovich even beyond.

An effective forte, according to the Dynamics page, needs a preceding piano from which it stands out. If you always play at the same volume, you give away the most expressive building block of all. The special case fortepiano (fp) denotes a strong attack with an immediate drop to soft, see Fortepiano.

Forte and tempo

The page Tools warns: loudness and tempo couple in the body almost automatically. It gets faster when it gets louder. You should therefore practise loud passages explicitly with a click.

Forte in the score

Guitar

• Etüde Nr. 7 Matteo Carcassi, op. 60 No. 7 · guitar · 2 pages

  “Allegro”, 4/4. The study begins with f, in bar 5 f enters anew, and after the repeat sign there is an f in bar 9. In between there are “dim.” and “cresc.”.

• Etüde Nr. 14 Matteo Carcassi, op. 60 No. 14 · guitar · 2 pages

  Two sharps in the key signature. On page 2 in the closing bars there is first f, then ff above the chords A and D.

Common mistakes

• Playing forte as the maximum: For that there are ff and fff.
• Playing without contrast: An f works only against a preceding p.
• Getting faster: Loudness pulls the tempo along.