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Dynamics

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• Dynamics are the signs in music that tells the performer what volume to use: loud, soft, and all other levels in between.
  • When singing in a choir, indications of dynamics are often given by the conductor, but the individual singers should always be aware of the dynamics the music indicates, and should sing at that volume, unless indicated otherwise by the conductor.

• The signs take a number of forms:
  • There is a set of very commonly used abbreviations for Italian names for general volume levels. They are always written in a specific curly bold Italic font close to the stave they apply to (not normally on the stave). The abbreviations used are, in order of ascending loudness:
    

    Italian word(s)	Literal translation	English meaning	Abbreviation used
    pianissimo	as soft as possible	very soft
    piano	soft	soft
    mezzo-piano	half soft	moderately soft
    mezzo-forte	half loud	moderately loud
    forte	loud	loud
    fortissimo	as loud as possible	very loud

  • These abbreviations indicate the volume level from that point onwards, or until another indication is given.

  • Composers do also use other abbreviations such fff and ppp that have meanings that are obvious extensions to the above, but they are not actually abbreviations for anything!

• There are some other Italian words which indicate changes in volume over a short period:
  

  Italian word(s)	English meaning	Abbreviation used
  sforzando	An accent, i.e. this note louder and stronger than others
  crescendo	get louder	cresc. or cres. or
  diminuendo or decrescendo	get softer	dim. or decres. or

  • The visual signs for crescendo and diminuendo are printed as long or short as necessary to indicate how long the getting louder or softer should last. They tend to be known as "hairpins", for hopefully obvious reasons (as in a pin to hold hair, also used in the phrase "hairpin bend"). They are usually written above or below the stave.

  • So in this example, the singer(s) should start getting louder on the word "be", should swell through the word "the" and be at the loudest at the beginning of the syllable "glo-", but then immediately start getting softer through the rest of the word, getting back to approximately the same volume that the phrase started at by the start of the last syllable of the word "glory". hear it

  • It is a good idea to practise getting louder and softer while singing a single note. To do it evenly and slowly is quite difficult!