Hairpin

What it means

The hairpin (German Gabel, “fork”) is the wedge-shaped sign with which gradual changes of volume are notated. If the wedge opens from left to right, it means crescendo; if it closes, it means decrescendo. The sign is equivalent to the corresponding words and is used above all for shorter stretches, whereas for long passages cresc. with a continuation line is preferred.

Two hairpins one after the other — first opening, then closing — call for swelling and diminishing; over a single long note this yields the figure that is called messa di voce in Italian.

The hairpin names no target values. From which level to which it goes follows from the dynamic markings at its beginning and end.

In the notation

The hairpin stands below the staff, in vocal parts above the text, and in piano music between the staves when it applies to both hands. Its beginning and its end determine exactly over which stretch the change runs; a hairpin that ends before the next dynamic marking demands that the goal is already reached there. In multi-staff systems every voice receives its own hairpin.

Musical use

The sign establishes itself in the course of the eighteenth century, when flowing transitions become a fixed part of music-making. Since then it has belonged to the basic stock of notation. In scores it shows at a glance which voices take part in an intensification and which keep their volume — information that would be harder to grasp with words.

In German it is also called Haarnadel (“hairpin”).

Performance practice

First read where the hairpin begins and ends, and divide the change over exactly this stretch. Check the dynamic markings before and after to determine starting and goal value. Take care that a short hairpin over a few notes means no great intensification but a fine one. And remember that the hairpin concerns only the volume: the tempo remains unchanged unless something else is added.