Dynamics, Articulation and Terms
Notes and rhythm tell you which pitch sounds when. Everything left over, and it is a surprising amount, lives in a second layer of signs: how loud, how short, how connected, how fast, with what character. That layer is the difference between the right notes and music.
- relative, not absolute
- 8 levels
- a direction, not a value
Where you run into this
- Classical
- Ensemble playing
- Choir
- Film scoring
In short
Dynamics are relative, and most textbooks dispose of that in a single clause. There is no absolute dynamic the way there is absolute pitch. A p does not mean sixty decibels, it means clearly softer than the f further down the page. That is not vagueness, it is the actual definition, and it is why the same marking means different things in a string quartet and in a symphony.
Understanding this changes how you read. You stop asking how loud is p and start asking what is it softer than, which is a question the page can actually answer.
How it works
The series runs from ppp to fff through mezzo levels in the middle, with the extremes far rarer than the tables suggest. Separate from levels are the sudden events, and they are regularly confused: sf marks a sudden strong emphasis on one note, fp means loud then immediately soft, and subito means suddenly, attached to whatever follows it. A crescendo, meanwhile, is a direction and not a level: it says get louder, not arrive at forte.
Where you run into this
- A part marked p that is played quite loudly, because everything around it is louder
- An accent that is not a dynamic marking and is often played as one
- A crescendo that peaks too early because it was read as a destination
Our own examples
One phrase, played under several markings, so the relative nature of the signs is audible in a few seconds rather than argued in a paragraph.
Keep going
Everything in reading music
- Lead Sheets
- Tabs and Chord Charts
- Dynamics, Articulation and Terms