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I have lyrics of two verses below the staves.

image of staff with two verses below

Now I want the second verse to get the fortissimo (ff) dynamic. Now how do I do that? How is that written down in sheet music?

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2 Answers 2

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The most common way to notate that would be f-ff (or "whatever the first dynamic is"-ff). The idea is that the first time you would play at the first dynamic and the second time you would play the second dynamic.

I would advise if there are any other modifications to the verse like crescendos, decrescendos, and accents the verses be separate so the texture change is clear.

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  • Yes, I have seen this many times.
    – awe
    Dec 6, 2013 at 11:56
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2nd time ff.

2nd × ff.

Or, even better, the same in italian, which I think would be

2a volta ff

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    Unless the choir / vocalist is Italian or you live in Italy, the 3rd option would only be confusing.
    – jjmusicnotes
    Dec 4, 2013 at 17:34
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    Most indications on a sheet music already are in italian. Why not that one?
    – Édouard
    Dec 4, 2013 at 17:50
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    @Édouard: Most musicians do not know Italian; rather, they know some musical terms which happen to come from that language. Your last example is not among the terms most musicians would know.
    – supercat
    Dec 4, 2013 at 23:30
  • It is, however, obvious enough that everyone should get it. After all, everyone doesn’t speak english either, and we all struggle with a bit of italian from time to time (my former wind band got stuck on a stringendo, once).
    – Édouard
    Dec 4, 2013 at 23:56
  • I've seen "2x tacet" in scores; presumably just "2x ff" would work too.
    – Dave
    Dec 5, 2013 at 12:49

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