Questions tagged [dynamics]
For questions related to the intensity, or loudness, of sound.
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meaning of the small circle at the end of the decrescendo?
Came across this variety of decrescendo in a vocal piece our choir is working on. 3 in the 13-page piece, all in the space of 3 bars, early in the piece, 2 of which are shown here. My choral director ...
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What does 'sostenuto (come IVa corda di violino)' instruct a keyboard player to do?
Baldassare Galuppi, a composer of the Italian Baroque, wrote a collection of twelve sonatas for harpsichord. In the first movement (Larghetto) of sonata number 2, the instruction sostenuto (come IVa ...
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Should the last chord before the last four chords be fortissimo in Chopin Op. 10, No. 12?
I'm learning Revolutionary Etude by Chopin (Op. 10, No. 12), and I am thinking about the last chord before the last four chords (fifth to the last chord, at the beginning of m. 81). Should it be ...
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Which is more comprehensible for a player after writing fortissimo: forte or meno forte?
So after writing ff when you want musicians to play very loud, would you rather write f alone or meno f if you want them to go a bit softer but still loud enough?
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Which version of notating dynamics for woodwinds is more clear?
As in title - which is better (if any)? Specifically for flutes and oboes.
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Strange dynamic marking 'fmo' in Clementi sonata
I have come across an odd dynamics marking 'fmo' whilst studying at a copy of Clementi's Sonata in Bb major, Op. 24, No. 2, dated c1790. The below image shows mvmt. 1, mm. 90–94.
Newer editions have ...
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Difference between fz, sz and f
What is exactly the difference between f (forte) and fz (forzato) ? I thought for long time that fz is similar to sf (sforzando), i.e. that it's a punctual dynamic that works only at the moment where ...
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Notation for rapid diminuendo
I am writing a part for strings and I want a rapid (but not instant) diminuendo across one bar from forte to total silence by the end of the fourth beat. I had four possibilities in mind for conveying ...
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the difference between SF and an accent mark [duplicate]
what is the difference between these two? I know Sf is a dynamic, but what if it is already in a forte section?
and with sf do you play every note following as sf until another dynamic change or do ...
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Can you bass boost a song repeatedly?
I was using a plugin/service to bass boost a song when this question came to mind:
Can you Bass Boost a song that has already been Bass Boosted after being Bass Boosted? In other words, can you ...
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How do I write hairpins and dynamics between staves in LilyPond?
Here's a minimal example of the sort of result I want to produce in LilyPond. (This was produced in Finale.)
Notice that the crescendo-stop, f, and decrescendo-start align with a note in the bottom ...
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Dynamic markings in harpsichord music
I have come across books similar to L'Art de Toucher le Clavecin, but written by English Composers. One such book "The Art of Playing the Harpsichord" IMSLP page and similar works have ...
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Why does photography promote high dynamic range whereas music production tends to reduce it?
On my phone, for example, HDR is a feature. Whereas in music production, a good compressor is seen as essential.
Why the apparent discrepancy?
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Unattached decrescendo in a single measure/single chord in lilypond
How to code the single measure/single chord decrescendo in lilypond?
|\> <ees' aes' c''>1 \!|
the above code gives a warning in lilypond: unterminated decrescendo.
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Anacrusis in Bach BWV 816 (French suite no. 5 in Gmaj) Gavotte
I had learned piano when I was young, and now I'm learning it again. I'm interested in Bach's pieces and BWV816 is the first piece my teacher suggested to learn.
The following is the first 9 and half ...
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Does excessive humidity affect the ability to play pianissimo? (On the piano) [closed]
I have trouble playing pianissimo but ff produces a good tone. Could humidity have caused this?
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Which electric piano tone on keyboard can have good accent and can be played loud at the same time?
I have to play a song which has electric piano tone which has a good distinct accent sound and can also be played at different dynamics.
The problem is that you've to hit the key hard to make it ...
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Can an offbeat note be loudest when playing Bach?
My primitive understanding of Bach's music tells me that an offbeat note cannot be the most accented or the most important note in a phrase. But in the last gesture of the ubiquitous C major prelude, ...
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Is it possible to combine accent and tremolo in notation?
I want to have a strings part with tremolo, like used for example on the beginning of the 4th movement in Beethoven's 6th Symphony.
But I also want the beginning of every such note to be accented. In ...
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Notating Dynamics for Drum Kit
I'm currently finishing an arrangement in Sibelius. One of the last things I'm adding is dynamic markings. For context, there is a string section, an electric guitar, electric bass, piano and vocals ...
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Did Chopin use hairpins (adjacent crescendo and decrescendo) to indicate rubato rather than dynamics?
In her answer to Liszt's B minor sonata crescendo, user @Madeleine writes:
In many places in Chopin's music, he wrote hairpins ... to indicate rubato rather than a crescendo or decrescendo.
The ...
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Problems with playing dynamics on a yamaha psr e463
I recently (about 5 months ago) have taken up the hobby of playing piano. I'm following the Alfred Basic Adult Level One book. Really loving it so far but I keep messing up when it comes to one aspect ...
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How is a Compressor different from Gain/Fader riding?
Compressor reduces a signal's dynamic range but the same can also be done by riding/automating the volume fader.
Compressors add coloration but other than that is it any different from fader riding?
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What do back-to-back crescendo-decrescendo ("<>") markings mean?
Okay, So I understand the staccato and crescendo and diminuendo markings, and the accent mark...
But what does the less than and greater than mark that I highlighted mean?
This is Czerny, First ...
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Is my understanding about this dynamics correct?
Sorry if my question is too simple or obvious to the experienced piano players,
so the piece starts with the dynamics "f" and "marcato",
f - loud
marcato - stressed, pronounced
...
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Writing dynamics separately with Lilypond
I've recently been engraving more and more with Lilypond, and I stumbled upon a .ly file on Mutopia (public domain scores engraved with Lilypond) where the dynamics and articulations are written ...
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Is there a difference between 'decrescendo' and 'diminuendo'?
I'm a lifelong musician, and this is something I've always wondered about. I know that decrescendo translates to "decreasing" and diminuendo to "diminishing", but does this have any practical ...
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Using different dynamics for different staves of the same instrument in MuseScore
I want to use different dynamics ( p and ff for treble and bass staff respectively) in Musescore 3.4.2 but always the last one I've entered has the effect and the former gets kind of discarded.
Is it ...
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Custom dynamic mark
I am in the process of engraving a sheet of piano music. I wrote a custom dynamic mark — the look of which I am very happy with, but the behavior, not totally. It is the following:
mff = \tweak ...
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What instrument(s) lend themselves to playing different dynamics rapidly? [closed]
I'm a composer. What instrument(s) would it be easiest to play parts like this on? Thinking along the lines of unpitched percussion, but I'm open to anything. For example:
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Mastering oboe dynamics
I have been playing the oboe for a term now, and I have come across some songs that require me to use dynamics. How do you achieve dynamics on the oboe, and what exercises can you do to master it.
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Midi Volume "Compression"?
Suppose your midi instrument, say a piano vst, has 16 "layers". When you input a note at velocity "1", you'll hear a very quiet ppp note. When you input the same note at velocity "127", you'll hear a ...
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Repeated forte dynamics in more than 10 measures, What does that mean?
As I arrange the Scherzo movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony for a piano quintet(though I might expand this out to a sextet and use a double bass in place of a second cello), I notice something odd ...
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Enhancing the effect of Crescendo/Diminuendo in musescore
I just want to know how can I steep the gradient of crescendo (or diminuendo) effect in Musescore?
In normal situations it's like there are no effects at all.
I'm using Musescore 3.2.
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Correct abbreviation for “niente”?
“Niente” (“nothing”) is used to start a crescendo from silence or end a diminuendo with silence.
Some scores spell it out fully (from “Titanic Suite”, published by Hal Leonard):
Other scores ...
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Fortepiano (fp) for the piano forte: are there examples in music literature? [duplicate]
A brass player I know plays fp by applying it to a single note. For the piano this is not possible. Reading a recent question and some comments below it, I wonder: are there examples of fp in music ...
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Dynamic marking "f-p"
I know that:
The dynamic marking f means forte, or play loud. And that p means piano, or play soft.
The dynamic marking fp means fortepiano, or play this note loud, and play the following notes soft....
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Is this fortissimo passage in the flute possible?
I am writing this piece for a piano flute duet to represent Spring and it has 3 main sections. Those sections are:
A - Quiet, Molto adagio, A minor, very melodic, rocking fifths in the bass, melody ...
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Dynamics using m, r, s, and z. What do they mean?
I've seen these dynamics that are notated with: 'm', 'r', 's', and 'z', but I don't know what the mean. I might have an idea to what 'm' means, which might mean 'medium' like in mp or mf, but I don't ...
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Does Sforzando really mean a stronger accent?
I come across sforzando a lot as an arranger and even just as a classical music listener. I was told by my piano teacher that sforzando means a stronger accent than your typical accent mark. But I ...
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How should I notate an intermediate dynamic between mp and mf?
I know this is a question that’s been asked before, but I haven’t found an answer that suits my needs.
Consider the following example [edit: new excerpt, to include all swells and to remove other ...
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Più, meno, poco & molto: How to write incremental dynamics?
I’m a self-taught amateur composer, and whilst the standard dynamics of ppp to fff go a long way, over time I’ve wanted to use some additional instructions to indicate incremental dynamics between ...
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Is there a difference between Espirando and Mancando?
I've seen both these terms listed in online music glossaries as meaning "dying away", but neither entry ever refers to the other. Are there any real-world differences in how these are interpreted?
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What is the point of repeating the same dynamic mark?
See this video
The audio is the orchestral version of Shosty 7, but the video shows a two piano arrangement, which is what the question is about. If you look at 1:06:...
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Will a forte tympani overpower a quiet orchestra?
So far, I have been mainly using the tympani in my orchestration of the Pathetique Sonata for the purpose of adding an accent. It might change later on to having a more important role but right now, ...
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How do pianists reach extremely loud dynamics?
This question of mine started when I heard the piano score of Mars by Gustav Holst. Here is the piano score:
How do the pianists even reach triple f? I myself have ...
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What is the best way to play with dynamics on the violin?
I've just started playing the violin, and have come to dynamics (forte, piano, etc.). To play forte, I push the bow hard, and for piano, I push the bow lightly. Is this the right method? Are there any ...
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Polyphony vs Monophony
I am taking a basic music class as an elective and was given a chart to compare monophony and polyphony. The elements within the chart are: Melody, Accompaniment, Harmony, Rhythm of Words, Dynamics ...
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What is the difference between accent and sforzando?
In particular, on cello. I got the impression that both are strong (either by pressure or speed) at the beginning of the note, followed by quick release of pressure/speed. What is the difference ...
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Why do arpeggios tend to blend at quiet dynamics?
I notice this especially in the arpeggio passage of the Solfeggio in C minor. But when I am playing very fast arpeggios, the notes either stay separate or blend depending on the dynamic. At forte, ...
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