Dynamics

Matthias Thiemel

https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.08458
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001

Updated in this version

updated bibliography, 25 July 2013

The intensity of volume with which notes and sounds are expressed. In the 20th century dynamics
came to be seen as one of the fundamental parameters of composition which function interdependently
to create musical meaning and structure.

1. History.

Dynamic variation is so natural to the performance of almost all styles of music that its presence can
normally be assumed even when indications for it are mainly or even entirely absent from the notation.
That dynamic transitions occurred in the music of ancient Greece is suggested by Plutarch’s accounts,
and it is likely that the monophonic hymns of the 1st century CE displayed nuances of volume
illustrating their meaning or imitating the tone of speech. Medieval musicians had no word for
‘dynamics’ per se, but it is implicit in the concepts of structura and processus. By the early Renaissance
period dynamic values were reflected in changes in the number of voices and their registers. In
Josquin’s Missa ‘Pange lingua’, for instance, paired imitation heightens the dynamic effect: first tenor
and bass, then soprano and alto, then all four voices together. Sweelinck and his pupils Scheidt and
Jacob Praetorius (ii) cultivated a ‘static’ sound pattern linked to the manuals and registers of the
organ, while the Venetian composers gave fuller play to dynamic contrasts in their polychoral works.

Vicentino and Zarlino were among the first theorists to pay attention to volume. Vicentino (1555, ff.37
and 88v) called for degrees of strength in vocal music appropriate to the text and the passage; Zarlino
(1558, p.204) emphasized that ‘one must sing with a voice that is moderate and in proportion to those
of the other singers’. Later theorists linked dynamics to the rhetorical musical figures associated with
the doctrine of the Affections. Michael Praetorius (1619, bk 3, p.132) described ‘pian and forte’ as
methods used ‘to express the affectus and move human feelings’; Mersenne (1634, bk 2, p.363)
distinguished eight degrees of strength necessary to express different degrees of the passions.

In general, dynamic markings occur only sporadically in music of the Baroque period. The erroneous
20th-century concept of ‘terrace dynamics’ was based on an overly literal interpretation of the scanty
dynamic performance terms of the time. Such graduated dynamics of register were more or less
peculiar to the harpsichord and organ, which during the Baroque period gave way to continuo
instruments capable of more nuanced dynamics. The organ too expanded its dynamic range with the
invention of the swell-box in 1676 by Thomas Mace. The mechanism was widespread by the early 18th
century, and was taken into account by Handel, though not by J.S. Bach.

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In the mid-18th century a new concept of dynamics emerged in conjunction with the genres of the
symphony and sonata. The tendency towards intensification and climaxes in the Classical style
demanded a more flexible system of dynamics. In contrast to the ornamental dynamic effects
characteristic of the Baroque concerto grosso, the dynamics employed by the Mannheim composers
were not governed by theories of composition and affects. A crescendo passage in sonata form, for
instance, could reappear later as a transition without a crescendo. C.P.E. Bach used abrupt changes
and contrasts in dynamics to create a dialogue structure. Schubart (1784–5, pubd 1806, p.275)
explained the markings sf, sfa and sforzato in Mozart’s music as indicating a ‘sudden and swift tonal
emphasis’, an effect that hardly existed 50 years earlier. Haydn’s use of sforzati on rhythmically and
metrically unstressed notes anticipated Beethoven’s powerful dynamic contrasts, such as the sudden
piano at climaxes that served as a ‘dynamic deceptive cadence’.

With the emergence of dynamics as a structural principle in the music of Rossini and Berlioz, dynamics
became even more vital to expression. The melodic and harmonic flow of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde
owes much to a system of dynamics that helps create the impression of music in a permanent state of
transition. Schumann’s dynamics often have spatial aspects; for instance, the heading of op.6 no.17
reads ‘Wie aus der Ferne’ (‘as if from a distance’), and at the beginning of the First Symphony
Schumann adds the note ‘Von der Höhe’ (‘from a height’). Webern often associated very small degrees
of volume with moments of great tension; the slightest sound could produce the effect of the ‘menacing
shadow of an infinitely distant and infinitely mighty noise’ (T. Adorno, Gesammelte Schriften, xvi, 118).
Hindemith, in the Marienleben, referred to dynamics as ‘an accompanying structural factor’, a
viewpoint shared by many of his contemporaries. Stravinsky in his earliest works employed a dynamics
of register created by instrumental additions; after the mid-1920s he avoided crescendos and
decrescendos, partly out of adherence to what he took to be the style of earlier periods. In Ravel’s
Bolero the gathering weight and intensity of the instrumentation generates a crescendo extending
through the entire piece.

Dynamics withstood control by 12-tone serial technique better than any other of the musical
parameters. Messiaen limited himself to seven degrees of intensity in his Mode de valeurs et
d’intensités, and Stockhausen’s Kreuzspiel (1951) uses not 12 but six dynamic qualities. Although in
Inori (1973–4) Stockhausen associated 60 gradations of dynamics with various instrumentations, he
subsequently came to believe that dynamics could not serve a structural function. Boulez observed that
it was ‘almost impossible for an interpreter to “standardize” the dynamic degrees’. He contrasted the
‘punctual dynamics’ of the late 20th century with the ‘linear dynamics’ of the pre-1950 period:

By punctual dynamics we understand any established dynamic degree; the chains occur …
without the existence of transitions or the appearance of transitions from one to the other. In
linear dynamics, on the other hand, we are moving along the path from one given dynamic
amplitude to another: crescendo, decrescendo and their combinations (Darmstädter Beiträge
zur neuen Musik, v, 1983, p.53).

Postmodern composers exhibited a tendency to employ extremes at both ends of the dynamic
spectrum. Ligeti’s third piece for two pianos, for example, moves from fffff to pp in a single bar.
Expressive and subtly nuanced dynamics occur in works of such composers as Nono, Crumb and
Johanna Senfter. Cage and Feldman opened up the frontiers of silence. Feldman’s music dispenses with
dynamic form as inherited from the 19th century; the potency of quiet often makes itself felt in the
absence of rhythmic organization. In electronic music, dynamic values precisely measured in decibels
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are combined with electronically generated tonal colour to create new spatial effects. A further
extension of the concept of dynamics has been achieved through the use of microphones, amplification
and regulation.

2. Notation.

The Capirola Codex of 1517 (fol.49v) contains the singular direction ‘tocca pian piano’. The
performance indications piano and forte are occasionally found in music composed around 1600, to
indicate both echo effects (as in Bonelli’s Primo libro delle vilanelle) and alternation between choirs (as
in Giovanni Gabrieli’s Sonata pian e forte). In Banchieri’s madrigal comedy Pazzia senile the notated
dynamics distinguish the characters from each other, and in the same composer’s Barca di Venetia per
Padova street criers and drinkers sing forte while the melodies of the fishermen are piano. In 17th-
century notation, piano and Echo are often used synonymously. In genuine echo compositions it was
usually sufficient to replace dynamic marks by appropriate headings; when solo voices or the chorus
were to perform an echo effect, it was indicated by the words in Ecco or piano, or even more frequently
by proposta – riposta.

Messe di voce (Domenico Mazzocchi used the sign C for the effect of increasing and decreasing sound)
and diminuendos on long single notes were part of vocal and instrumental performing practice from
the early 17th century. Caccini’s principles of ‘muovere de l’affetto’ and ‘cantare con affetto’ would
hardly have been conceivable without purposeful dynamics; those principles were adopted first by
Monteverdi, Fantini and Castello, and later by Thomas Mace. In the foreword to Le nuove musice
(1601–2, p.63), Caccini described the esclamazione, which may already have been in use for decades,
as ‘really nothing but allowing some reinforcement of the voice.’ In contrast to the messa di voce, the
esclamazione involved letting the volume die down and immediately increase again. The dynamics
developed in Italy in connection with affects and echoes stimulated German, French and English music
and its notation. Italian dynamic markings were used throughout Europe, often alongside terminology
from other languages. The notation of crescendos and decrescendos was particularly refined.
Sometimes a crescendo was indicated by a graduated series of dynamic levels (e.g. p … f … ff),
sometimes by phrases such as ‘lowder by degrees’ (Locke, The Tempest, 1675) or ‘un peu plus forte et
toujours en augmentant jusqu’à la fin’ (Marais, Sonnaite à la mariesienne, 1723).

In the 18th century composers resorted to filled-in forks, equilateral triangles and needles to express
constant changes of volume, for instance in violin sonatas by G.A. Piani (1712), Geminiani (1739) and
Veracini (1744), and in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Araicie (1733). Rameau and Geminiani indicated
crescendos and decrescendos with wedges; Geminiani also used the direction rinforzando in the sense
of a crescendo. The first edition of Leopold Mozart’s Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule (1756, pp.
50–51) contains the following paraphrases: ‘Piano … means quiet; forte … loud or strong. Mezzo …
means half and is used to moderate the forte and piano. Piu … means more. Crescendo … growing.
Decrescendo … on the other hand, indicates that the strength of the note is to diminish more and
more’. Haydn used the markings pp, piu p, p, mezzo forte, poco f, f, f assai, ff, mezza voce, sotto voce,
cresc., decresc., dim. and mancando. W.A. Mozart added mfp, sfz, sfp and callando to this stock of
terms. Beethoven also used ppp (op.18), meno p, sempre p e dolce, piu f, sempre piu f, fff, fp, morendo,
smorzando and perdendosi; in his scores such expressions as dolce, espressivo, cantabile and con
espressione almost always indicate that the part thus described is the main one or its counterpart, not
just a subordinate part.

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In the course of the 19th century composers felt obliged to provide more and more performance
indications; this led to proliferation of extreme values purportedly reflecting the composers’ intentions.
Berlioz was probably the first to resort to ffff, surpassing the fff found now and then in Weber and
Beethoven. Carl Gollmick urged composers to treat pp and ff as superlatives, and to use ppp and fff only
with reluctance (Critische Terminologie für Musiker und Musikfreunde, 1833). However, later
composers ignored his plea for moderation. Verdi’s Messa da Requiem contains the first ppppp, and
Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathétique’ Symphony the first pppppp. The last movement of Skryabin’s First Piano
Sonata contains the marking Quasi niente, pppp, and his later directions range from velouté (‘velvety’)
to éclatant (‘piercing’). Schoenberg, in the fifth of the Kleine Klavierstücke op.19, added the phrase
zart, aber voll (‘tender but full’) to a p. Mahler, Schreker, Berg, Draeseke, Puccini, Distler, Richard
Strauss and Koechlin also used dynamic markings of above-average precision.

From the second half of the 19th century dynamic markings in scores by progressive composers are
vertically differentiated. For instance, in Liszt’s Tasso: lamento e trionfo, the adagio mesto section has
four simultaneous markings: pp for the horn, ff for the harp, f espressivo for three solo cellos and bass
clarinet, and p for the rest of the cellos and double basses. Debussy’s performance indications such as
en dehors, très en dehors and soutenu provide clarity over and beyond the hierarchy of the parts. In
the later 19th century directions such as hervortretend and marki(e)rt were used by Draeseke, Wagner,
Bruckner and others; the composers of the Second Viennese School began marking the main part
(Hauptstimme) with ‘H’ and subordinate parts (Nebenstimmen) with ‘N’. Schoenberg, whose op.19
prescribes vertically differentiated dynamics in several passages, required composers ‘to show, in one’s
markings, whether the total loudness is meant or the instrument’s own degree of loudness’, the
dynamic marking is therefore either related to the total sound of the work as composed, or subjectively
absolute, not fitting into that sound ‘from the point of view of the instrument’ (Style and Idea, 2/1984,
p.341).

Dynamic signs and terms can be taken as identical only within the works of individual composers, or at
the most for historically limited periods. Even within a composer’s personal style one must take
account of diachronic developments; for instance, fortissimo denoting breadth of aspiration and
conflict does not occur until Beethoven’s middle period. ‘Fortissimo does not always mean “as strong
as possible” but can mean very strong, stronger than forte; like every term denoting strength, it
comprises many degrees within itself’ (A.B. Marx, Anleitung zum Vortrag Beethovenscher
Klavierwerke, 1863, p.98). Marx took the ff in Beethoven’s early works to be milder than the same
marking in later works such as opp.57 and 106. The same observation applies to Schubert; the
comparatively small expansion of a short piece such as one of his Ländler is hardly ever appropriate to
the kind of large-scale fortissimo that has its place in sonata movements of larger dimensions.

In Le marteau sans maître, Boulez’s instructions ‘sans équilibre’, as against ‘sonorités très équilibrées
entre elles’ and ‘Les nuances seront exécutées “ponctuellement”’ (see §1 above), can be realized by a
corresponding distribution of intensity. Notwithstanding the efforts of Schoenberg, Berg, Debussy,
Stravinsky, Penderecki, Ligeti and Feldman, however, dynamics and the mingling of tonal colours, at
least in the traditional instrumental make-up of an ensemble, are still not regarded as satisfactorily
capable of notation. Moreover, the differences between, for instance, a piano played by only a few
instruments and one played by a larger ensemble may be perceived, but no terms to describe them
have been coined.

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3. Performing practice.

An awareness of the significance of acoustics and dynamics in performance is attested at an early

period. Zarlino (1558) wanted vocalization to be adapted to the conditions of performance: singing, he
thought, should be more unobtrusive in a small than in a large space. Inadequately nuanced dynamics
– even more than inadequate articulation – can disturb or even destroy the syntax set out by the
composer, and in the case of vocal music distort the sense of the text. Beethoven directed his publisher
to ‘have all the p, pp, cresc., decresc., f and ff crossed out of my opera- none of them will be observed,
after all, and if I were to hear them, I would lose all desire to write anything else’. Similar complaints
have come down to us from C.P.E. Bach, Mozart, Wagner, Mahler, Pfitzner and other composers. In
1924 Richard Strauss lamented the tendency towards louder, less refined dynamics: ‘Incompetent
conductors, over-large opera houses, and sad to say, a lack of taste on the part of the general public,
which is only too ready to prefer a strong voice to a fine one, have made good piano and messa voce
singing a rarity’ (Betrachtungen und Erinnerungen, 1949, p.138–9).

Smooth transitions, the ‘glissando dynamics’ (Boulez) of crescendo and decrescendo, had been in use
for a long time before they were notated. Ganassi, in the first chapter of Opera intitulata Fontegara
(1535), encouraged flautists ‘to learn from and imitate’ the human voice by allowing the breath to
increase and decrease. Fantini’s Modo per imparare a sonare di tromba (1638) requires every long
note to be performed on the trumpet ‘modo cantabile’. There is evidence for the performance of
‘swelling’ effects as early as the 16th century. Christoph Bernhard, in the mid-17th century, said that
one should not ‘suddenly fall from piano to forte’ or the other way around, for this would ‘become truly
horrible to the ear’.

In L’art de toucher le clavecin (1716) François Couperin suggested how harpsichordists (and by
implication organists as well) could give audiences the impression of an increase or decrease in sound,
despite the instruments’ lack of external dynamics, through the use of aspiration, céssation and
suspension des sons. The latter two effects ‘leave the ear uncertain [indéterminée], so that where
bowed instruments will allow their sound to swell, the delaying of notes on the harpsichord … conveys
the same impression’. Dissonances, according to all 18th- and 19th-century theoretical works on
performance, are the first elements to be intentionally (or actually) emphasized. To a great extent, the
suggestion of dynamics that a good harpsichordist can achieve depends on the technical quality of the
instrument and the art of playing it with taste, experience and suggestibility.

When using modern instruments to play from 18th- and 19th-century notation, it must be remembered
that ‘the same dynamic markings must often be read in very different ways for different
instruments’ (W. Furtwängler, Ton und Wort, 8/1958, p.75). One should also remember that the sound
of the Baroque orchestra was more slender and transparent than the denser, more compact sound of
the orchestra after 1920, and that none of the instruments of the 19th century was as brilliant or
capable of such intense and incisive performance as those available today. The selectivity of
instruments and instrumental groups, and indeed their incompatibity with each other, has increased by
comparison with the milder-sounding instrumental ensembles of earlier periods.

The relativity of musical dynamics is partly explained by the fact that every instrument has two, three
or four registers defined by differences in tonal colour and the dynamic area in which it operates. For
instance, if orchestral sound were not balanced then the subjective p of a tuba would sound louder

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than the ff of the flute in its low register; a piano possibile c″ of a tenor trombone would correspond in
reality to a mezzo marking; the bass clarinet would never get beyond a real f in its low and middle
register; and the oboe could not reach ff in its highest register. Even the best players are subject to the
limits of their instruments. Furthermore, acoustic intensities cannot be calculated in proportion to the
number of instruments employed; for instance, the number of string instruments would have to be
multiplied by ten to achieve twice the volume. A comparison of Wolf’s Italienische Serenade in the
versions for quartet and small orchestra illustrates the dependence of a composer’s intended dynamics
on orchestral forces: nearly all the dynamic markings are increased by one step in the quartet setting
(ff instead of f, f instead of p, p instead of pp, ppp instead of pppp).

In many cases dynamics are not explicitly notated but must be inferred on the basis of the performer’s
understanding of form, content and expression. For instance, both Riemann and Kurth argued that a
modulation to the dominant key should always be accompanied by greater tension, while a modulation
to the subdominant implied ‘a sense of subsidence, relaxation and resignation’ (AMZ, l, 1848, col.580).
Hummel (2/1838, p.428) observed that ascending passages imply a crescendo and descending
passages a diminuendo unless the composer specifies otherwise. The best guideline for the performer,
in the absence of explicit dynamic markings, is to follow the internal sense of the music. ‘If a theme
exchanges the degree of its volume and tonal force, there must always be some inner necessity for it
… : the plain expression of musical logic, intended by the creator, followed by the performer, and
understood by the hearer’ (Karl Grunsky, Musikästhetik, 1907, pp.162–3).

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MGG2

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R. Wagner: ‘Zum Vortrag der Neunten Symphonie Beethovens’, Gesammelte Schriften und
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