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I have a question about music notation: - - - in - - - u - - - - en - - - - - do - -

It appears in a music book edited by Willard A. Palmer, Bach, Prelude in C Minor, BWV 999, measure 26 to 29.

Can somebody kindly explain to me what these notations mean?

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  • 21
    I imagine it comes right before a big D.
    – Adam Barnes
    Oct 7, 2019 at 17:32
  • 7
    @AdamBarnes: Rather it seems to come right after a D[im]...
    – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
    Oct 7, 2019 at 21:57

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Is it possible there is a "dim" around m. 25 or so?

Often a composer (or in this case, an editor) will request that an expression marking takes place over a span of time instead of instantaneously. One such standard marking is "diminuendo," which instructs the performer to gradually get softer.

It sounds like the "inuendo" is simply the latter portion of a larger "diminuendo" marking. As such, begin getting softer at the appearance of "dim" and reach the new dynamic after the "inuendo"; in many cases, the composer will give a new dynamic marking at that point.

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  • 9
    Yes, dim begins at m. 24. Thanks for the explanation.
    – jsmath
    Oct 6, 2019 at 21:36
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    In this case it's obviously not the composer's expression markings, but the editor's.
    – jwvh
    Oct 8, 2019 at 9:21
  • @jwvh Very true! (And in my opinion, the Palmer editions of Bach are always too editoralized.) I tried to side-step this in my answer, but I've made an edit to address it.
    – Richard
    Oct 8, 2019 at 9:34
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    I wonder actually why they do it at all, as one of the special qualities of playing JSB's music is that it lends itself to such a huge range of interpretation, tempo and so on. Strikes me a bit as editorial arrogance to be honest. I think if he wanted to invent some dynamics markings to write on the score he would very easily have done so.
    – danmcb
    Oct 8, 2019 at 19:54

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