Dynamics – loud and soft
The same melody can whisper or shout. Dynamics is the building block that decides the loudness – and thereby a large part of the expression. It turns a correct sequence of notes into something alive: it creates nearness and distance, tension and relief, intimacy and force.
The basic levels
For loudness there is a graded language, mostly with Italian terms and their abbreviations. From soft to loud: pianissimo (pp, very soft), piano (p, soft), mezzopiano (mp, medium soft), mezzoforte (mf, medium loud), forte (f, loud) and fortissimo (ff, very loud). These levels are not exact measured values but points of reference: forte means something different in a string quartet than in a large orchestra. What is always decisive is the relationship to one another – the contrast, not the absolute level.
The becoming of loudness
At least as important as the fixed levels are the transitions. The crescendo is the gradual growing louder – often the strongest build-up of tension in all of music, because the ear experiences the swelling as an increase of energy and urgency. Its counterpart, the decrescendo or diminuendo, is the gradual growing softer, which brings calm, retreat or fading out. In notation both often appear as opening or closing hairpins under the notes.
Besides the gradual ones there are the sudden changes. A subito piano – an abrupt drop back into the soft – can be more startling than any loud fortissimo, precisely because it breaks the expectation. And the accent (sforzato) powerfully highlights a single note.
Why dynamics is expression
Dynamics works so immediately because it ties into deeply anchored experiential knowledge: in nature the loud is often near, powerful or threatening, the soft far, tender or mysterious. Music uses this connection. A soft beginning draws attention, because we have to make an effort to listen; a long crescendo towards a climax creates physically palpable tension; a sudden falling silent lets the room ring on. Without dynamic shaping even a great composition would remain oddly flat – just as a speech without any stress becomes tiring.
Two kinds of dynamic shaping
Historically there are two fundamentally different ways of shaping loudness. Terraced dynamics sets loud and soft sections side by side like steps – a block of forte, a block of piano, without transition. That is the typical sound of Baroque music; many instruments of that time, such as the harpsichord, could not change loudness gradually at all, and the sudden change between two levels of sound became a means of expression in its own right. Gradual dynamics, by contrast – the gradual swelling and fading through crescendo and decrescendo – only prevailed with instruments that allowed fine gradations. The modern piano even carries this achievement in its name: "pianoforte" means literally "soft-loud", because it was the first keyboard instrument to do both by touch. Both principles exist side by side to this day and can be combined effectively within the same piece.
Dynamics on the small scale
Dynamics concerns not only whole sections but also the single note. An accent highlights a note through a stronger attack and gives the rhythm profile – it can stress an expected strong beat or, as a syncopation, precisely an unexpected one. Closely related is the question of how a note is begun and ended: a softly set note that begins quietly and swells sounds different from one that enters at once with full force. This fine shaping of the single note is the transition from pure loudness to articulation – the "how" of playing. It is exactly here that mechanical playing separates from living playing: two players can play exactly the same notes at the same basic loudness and yet sound completely different, through the treatment of the individual notes alone.
Perceiving dynamics consciously
To hear dynamics it pays to attend to the course rather than the single moment: where does it grow louder, where softer, and – often most revealing – where does the change happen suddenly rather than gradually? For your own playing the most important insight is that dynamics is relative: an effective forte needs a preceding piano from which it stands out. Whoever always plays equally loud throws away the most expressive building block there is. Better to begin softer than necessary – then there is room upward. And mind the space you play in: in a reverberant church a piano carries further and a fortissimo can easily overwhelm, while a dry small room demands more force for the same effect. Dynamics is thus never a fixed value but always an answer to the music, fellow players and surroundings.
Dynamics in the ensemble
Dynamics becomes especially appealing when several voices work together. In an ensemble or orchestra loudness arises not only through stronger playing by the individual but also through the number of those taking part: if after a soft solo passage the whole orchestra suddenly enters, it works like a rising curtain. Conversely, a composer can let one voice step forward deliberately by pulling the others back – so the melody stays audible even when much is happening at once. This balance of voices is an art in itself: each fellow player must not only shape their own dynamic line but hear where they stand in the overall sound – carrying melody or supporting accompaniment. It is precisely this mutual listening to one another that distinguishes a good ensemble from a mere collection of individual players.
From how loud to with what
How loud something sounds is one question – with what it sounds is the next. Why violin and flute sound different even on the same note is explained by the next building block.