Dynamics: symbols for loud and soft

Softer than piano, but still a real sound with a centre — not an absence of sound. For softer still, composers write ppp, and occasionally more.

How soft is relative: pp from a solo flute is quieter than pp from a full orchestra, and every room changes it.

The instrument is named after the dynamic. The pianoforte — 'soft-loud' — could play softly or loudly depending on how hard the keys were struck, which the harpsichord before it could not.

Like every dynamic, p lasts until the next dynamic marking.

Mezzo means 'half' or 'middle'. mp and mf sit either side of the middle of the range, and much music spends most of its time between them.

Players often treat it as a neutral middle level when no dynamic is written. Dynamics are placed below the staff in instrumental parts, and above it in vocal music, where the words take the space below.

Loud means full and strong, not forced: a forte that cracks or distorts has gone past the dynamic.

An f inside another marking may not mean a lasting level at all. sf and sfz are accents on a single note — see sforzando.

For the loudest moments composers write fff, and occasionally more. At the extremes these are expressive markings — how much more the music should give — rather than exact levels.

The hairpin shows exactly where the change starts and ends, and it opens towards the louder end. cresc. is used for longer changes, often followed by dashes. Either way, the music reaches the next dynamic gradually rather than in a jump.

Crescendo is Italian for 'growing'.

Decrescendo and diminuendo mean the same in practice, and both are drawn as the closing hairpin, which narrows towards the softer end.

A short closing hairpin can look like an accent, but it sits below the staff (or between a piano's two staves) and stretches across time. An accent sits right at one notehead.

Unlike forte, it does not set a new level. The note is attacked forcefully and the music continues at the dynamic around it. How strong depends on that context: an sfz in a soft passage is lighter than one in a loud passage.

Sforzando means 'forcing'.

The forte lasts only for the attack; the rest of the note, and the music after it, are piano. On instruments that can change a note's volume while it sounds — winds, strings, voices — the drop is heard inside the note. On a piano it shapes the attack and what follows.

Not to be confused with the fortepiano, the early piano of Mozart's time: same word, different meaning.