In music Music is an art form whose medium is sound. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. The word derives from Greek μουσική (mousike), "(art) of the Muses.", dynamics normally refers to the volume Loudness is the quality of a sound that is the primary psychological correlate of physical strength . More formally, it is defined as "that attribute of auditory sensation in terms of which sounds can be ordered on a scale extending from quiet to loud." of a sound Sound is a travelling wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations or note Notes are the "atoms" of much Western music: discretizations of musical phenomena that facilitate performance, comprehension, and analysis, but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic (staccato, legato etc.) or functional (velocity). The term is also applied to the written or printed musical notation used to indicate dynamics. Dynamics do not indicate specific volume levels, but are meant to be played with reference to the ensemble as a whole. Dynamic indications are derived from Italian Italian ( italiano , or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken as a native language by about 70 million people in Italy, San Marino and parts of Switzerland, Croatia, Slovenia and France. In addition, it is spoken by an additional 120 to 150 million people as a non-native language. Most native speakers are native bilinguals of both words.

Relative loudness

The two basic dynamic indications in music are:

• p or piano, meaning "soft."
• ƒ or forte, meaning "loud" or "strong".

More subtle degrees of loudness or softness are indicated by:

• mp, standing for mezzo-piano, meaning "moderately soft" and
• mƒ, standing for mezzo-forte, meaning "moderately loud".

Beyond f and p, there are also

• pp, standing for "pianissimo", and meaning "very soft",
• ƒƒ, standing for "fortissimo", and meaning "very loud",

To indicate an even softer dynamic than pianissimo, ppp is marked, with the reading pianississimo ("very, very soft") or pianissimo possibile ("softest possible"). Each additional "p" adds another "iss" to the word. The same is done on the loud side of the scale, with ƒƒƒ being "fortississimo" ("very, very loud").

Few pieces contain dynamic designations with more than three ƒs (sometimes called "fortondoando") or ps. In Holst's The Planets The Planets, Op. 32 is a seven-movement orchestral suite by the British composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1916. Each movement of the suite is named after a planet of the Solar System and its corresponding astrological character as defined by Holst. All planets are represented with the only exception being Earth, ƒƒƒƒ occurs twice in Mars and once in Uranus often punctuated by organ and ƒƒƒ occurs several times throughout the work. The Norman Dello Joio Norman Dello Joio was an American composer Suite for Piano ends with a crescendo to a ƒƒƒƒ, and Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky[a 1] (Russian: Пётр Ильич Чайковский , tr. Pëtr Il'ič Čajkovskij, IPA [ˈpʲɵtr ɪlʲˈjitɕ tɕɪjˈkofskʲɪj]; May 7, 1840 [O.S. April 25] – November 6, 1893 [O.S. October 25]),[a 2] often called Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (pronounced /ˈpiːtər ˈɪlɨtʃ tʃaɪˈkɒvski/) in English, was a indicated a bassoon solo pppppp in his Pathétique symphony The Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Pathétique, Op. 74 is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's final symphony, written between February and the end of August 1893. The composer led the first performance in St. Petersburg on October 28 of that year, nine days before his death. The second performance, under Eduard Nápravník, took place 20 days later at a and ƒƒƒƒ in passages of his 1812 Overture The Year 1812, Festival Overture in E flat major, Op. 49, popularly known as the 1812 Overture , is an overture written by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1880 to commemorate Russia's defense of Moscow against Napoleon's advancing Grande Armée at the Battle of Borodino in 1812. The overture debuted in the Cathedral of Christ the and the 2nd movement of his 5th symphony. ƒƒƒƒ is also found in a prelude by Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. He was one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, the last great representative of Russian late Romanticism in classical music. Early influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and other Russian composers gave way to a thoroughly personal idiom which, op.3-2. Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (Russian: Дмитрий Дмитриевич Шостакович , tr. Dmitrij Dmitrievič Šostakovič) (25 September [O.S. September 12] 1906 – 9 August 1975) was a Russian composer of the Soviet period and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century even went as loud as ƒƒƒƒƒ in his fourth symphony Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Opus 43, between September 1935 and May 1936, after abandoning some preliminary sketch material. In January 1936, halfway through this period, Pravda—under direct orders from Joseph Stalin—published the infamous editorial 'Chaos Instead of Music' that denounced the composer and. Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer, he acted as a bridge between the 19th century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide, in the third movement of his Seventh Symphony Gustav Mahler's Seventh Symphony was written in 1904-05 . It is sometimes referred to by the title Song of the Night (German: Lied der Nacht), though this does not derive from Mahler and was not approved by him, gives the celli and basses a marking of ƒƒƒƒƒ, along with a footnote directing 'pluck so hard that the strings hit the wood Pizzicato is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a string instrument. The exact technique varies somewhat depending on the type of stringed instrument.' On another extreme, Carl Nielsen Carl August Nielsen was a composer, conductor, and violinist from Denmark. His works have long been well known in Denmark and they have been "a mainstay throughout the Nordic countries and, to a lesser extent, in Britain," noted the critic Alex Ross in 2008 in The New Yorker, and rising young conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel and Alan, in the second movement of his Symphony No. 5 The Symphony No. 5 by Danish composer Carl Nielsen was completed on 15 January 1922 and first performed in Copenhagen on 24 January 1922 with the composer conducting. It is one of two of Nielsen's six symphonies lacking a subtitle, marked a passage for woodwinds a diminuendo to ppppp. Another more extreme dynamic is in György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti was a composer, born in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania. He briefly lived in Hungary before later becoming an Austrian citizen. Many of his works are well known in classical music circles, but to the general public, he is best known for the various pieces featured in the Stanley Kubrick films 2001: A Space's Devil's Staircase Etude, which has at one point a ƒƒƒƒƒƒ and progresses to a ƒƒƒƒƒƒƒƒ. In the baritone passage Era la notte from his opera Otello Verdi uses pppp Steane (1971) and others suggest that such markings are in reality a strong reminder to less than subtle singers to at least sing softly rather than an instruction to the singer actually to attempt a pppp.

In music for marching band, passages louder than ƒƒƒ are sometimes colloquially referred to by descriptive terms such as "blastissimo".

Dynamic indications are relative, not absolute. mp does not indicate an exact level of volume, it merely indicates that music in a passage so marked should be a little louder than p and a little quieter than mf. Interpretations of dynamic levels are left mostly to the performer; in the Barber Samuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music. He was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize for music, for his opera Vanessa and his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. His Knoxville: Piano Nocturne, a phrase beginning pp is followed by a diminuendo leading to a mp marking. Another instance of performer's discretion in this piece occurs when the left hand is shown to crescendo to a ƒ, and then immediately after marked p while the right hand plays the melody ƒ. It has been speculated that this is used simply to remind the performer to keep the melody louder than the harmonic line in the left hand. In some music notation programs A scorewriter, or music notation program, is software used for creating sheet music. A scorewriter is to music notation what a word processor is to text, there are default MIDI MIDI , pronounced /ˈmɪdi/, is an industry-standard protocol defined in 1982 that enables electronic musical instruments such as keyboard controllers, computers, and other electronic equipment to communicate, control, and synchronize with each other. MIDI allows computers, synthesizers, MIDI controllers, sound cards, samplers and drum machines to key velocity values associated with these indications, but more sophisticated programs allow users to change these as needed.

Sudden changes

Sudden changes in dynamics are notated by a s prefixing the new dynamic notation, and the prefix is called subito. Subito is italian as most other dynamic notations, and translates into "suddenly"^[1]. It is usually used along with forzando (italian for "forcing"), to make subito forzando, or what most people refer to as just sforzando. Other common uses of subito are before a regular dynamic notation, like in spp, sf, or sff.

Sforzando (or sforzato), indicates a forcefull, sudden accent and is abbreviated as sƒz. Regular forzando (fz) indicates a forcefull note, but with a sligthly less sudden accent.

The fortepiano notation ƒp (or subito fortepiano; sƒp) indicates a forte followed immediately by piano. This notation is usually used to give an unusual strong (and sudden if subito) accent.

One particularly noteworthy use of forzando is in the second movement of Joseph Haydn Joseph Haydn was an Austrian composer. He was one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these genres. He was also instrumental in the development of the piano trio and in's Surprise Symphony The Symphony No. 94 in G major is the second of the twelve so-called London symphonies (numbers 93-104) written by Joseph Haydn. It is usually called by its nickname, the Surprise Symphony, although in German it is more often referred to as the Symphony "mit dem Paukenschlag" ("with the kettledrum stroke"). Rinforzando, rƒz (literally "reinforcing") indicates that several notes, or a short phrase, are to be emphasized. Rinforte (rƒ) is also available.

Gradual changes

In addition, there are words used to indicate gradual changes in volume. The two most common are crescendo, sometimes abbreviated to cresc., meaning "get gradually louder"; and decrescendo or diminuendo, sometimes abbreviated to decresc. and dim. respectively, meaning "get gradually softer". Signs sometimes referred to as "hairpins"^[2] are also used to stand for these words (See image). If the lines are joined at the left, then the indication is to get louder; if they join at the right, the indication is to get softer. The following notation indicates music starting moderately loud, then becoming gradually louder and then gradually quieter.

Hairpins are usually written below the staff In standard Western musical notation, the staff or stave is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces, each of which represents a different musical pitch, or, in the case of a percussion staff, different percussion instruments. Appropriate music symbols, depending upon the intended effect, are placed on the staff according to their, but are sometimes found above, especially in music for singers Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can either be sung a cappella or accompanied by musicians and instruments ranging from a single instrumentalist to a full or in music with multiple melody lines being played by a single performer. They tend to be used for dynamic changes over a relatively short space of time, while cresc., decresc. and dim. are generally used for dynamic changes over a longer period. For long stretches, dashes are used to extend the words so that it is clear over what time the event should occur. It is not necessary to draw dynamic marks over more than a few bars, whereas word directions can remain in force for pages if necessary.

For quicker changes in dynamics, molto cresc. and molto dim. are often used, where the molto means a lot. Similarly, for slow changes poco a poco cresc. or cresc. poco a poco and poco a poco dim. or dim. poco a poco are used, where poco a poco translates as bit by bit.

A good example of a piece that uses both gradual changes and quick changes in dynamics is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky[a 1] (Russian: Пётр Ильич Чайковский , tr. Pëtr Il'ič Čajkovskij, IPA [ˈpʲɵtr ɪlʲˈjitɕ tɕɪjˈkofskʲɪj]; May 7, 1840 [O.S. April 25] – November 6, 1893 [O.S. October 25]),[a 2] often called Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (pronounced /ˈpiːtər ˈɪlɨtʃ tʃaɪˈkɒvski/) in English, was a's fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet.

Words/phrases indicating changes of dynamics

(In Italian unless otherwise indicated)

• al niente: to nothing; fade to silence
• calando: becoming smaller
• crescendo: becoming louder
• dal niente: from nothing; out of silence
• decrescendo or diminuendo: becoming softer
• fortepiano: loud and accented and then immediately soft
• fortissimo piano: very loud and then immediately soft
• in rilievo: in relief (French en dehors: outwards); indicates that a particular instrument or part is to play louder than the others so as to stand out over the ensemble. In the circle of Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg (13 September 1874 – 13 July 1951) was an Austrian and later American composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School. He used the spelling Schönberg until after his move to the United States in 1934 (Steinberg 1995, 463), "in deference to American, this expression had been replaced by the letter "H" (for German, "Hauptstimme"), with an added horizontal line at the letter's top, pointing to the right, the end of this passage to be marked by the symbol " ┐ ".
• perdendo or perdendosi: losing volume, fading into nothing, dying away
• mezzoforte piano: moderately loud and them immediately soft
• morendo: dying away (may also indicate a tempo change)
• marcato: stressed, pronounced
• pianoforte: soft and then immediately loud
• sforzando piano: with marked and sudden emphasis, then immediately soft
• sotto voce Sotto voce means to speak under one's breath. In music, a dramatic lowering of the vocal or instrumental tone — not necessarily pianissimo, but with a hushed quality. An example of Sotto voce is in the Lacrimosa from Mozart's Requiem Mass in D Minor. The singers lower their volume in order to attain the 'hushed' quality desired: in an undertone (whispered or unvoiced)^[3]
• smorzando: dying away

History

The Renaissance Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given the gradually adopted "Renaissance" characteristics: musicologists have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s composer A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media[clarification needed]. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright[specify] and the Giovanni Gabrieli Giovanni Gabrieli was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift from Renaissance to Baroque idioms was one of the first to indicate dynamics in music notation Music notation or musical notation is any system that represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written symbols, but dynamics were used sparingly by composers until the late 18th century. Bach used the terms piano, più piano, and pianissimo (written out as words), and in some cases it may be that ppp was considered to mean pianissimo in this period.

During the Baroque Baroque is an artistic style prevalent from the late 16th century to the early 18th century in Europe. It is most often defined as "the dominant style of art in Europe between the Mannerist and Rococo eras, a style characterized by dynamic movement, overt emotion and self-confident rhetoric" period, the use of terraced dynamics was common. This meant a sudden change from full to soft, with no crescendo or decrescendo. The terraced dynamic was used for musical effect, to create an echo effect: a passage is played forte, then repeated piano as an echo. However, a major reason for the use of terraced dynamics is that the harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed, which was the principal keyboard instrument of the period, was incapable of gradations of volume. The harpsichord can be played either loud or soft, but not in between.

The fact that the harpsichord could play only terraced dynamics, and the fact that composers of the period did not mark gradations of dynamics in their scores, has led to the "somewhat misleading suggestion that baroque dynamics are 'terraced dynamics'," writes Robert Donington.^[4] In fact, baroque musicians constantly varied dynamics. "Light and shade must be constantly introduced... by the incessant interchange of loud and soft," wrote Johann Joachim Quantz Johann Joachim Quantz was a German flautist, flute maker and composer in 1752.^[5]

In the Romantic period, composers greatly expanded the vocabulary for describing dynamic changes in their scores. Where Haydn and Mozart specified six levels (pp to ff), Beethoven used also ppp and fff (the latter less frequently), and Brahms used a range of terms to describe the dynamics he wanted. In the slow movement of the trio for violin, waldhorn and piano (Opus 40), he uses the expressions ppp, molto piano, and quasi niente to express different qualities of quiet.

See also

• Glossary of musical terminology This is a list of musical terms that are likely to be encountered in printed scores, music reviews, and program notes. Most of the terms are Italian , in accordance with the Italian origins of many European musical conventions. Sometimes, the special musical meanings of these phrases differ from the original or current Italian meanings. Most of
• Accent (music) In music, an accent is an emphasis placed on a particular note, either as a result of its context or specifically indicated by an accent mark. Accents contribute to the articulation and prosody of a performance of a musical phrase. Compared to surrounding notes:

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