2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
The words crescendo and diminuendo, like most musical terms, are of Italian origin. "Crescendo" is a word meaning "increase the sound", "diminuendo" - on the contrary, "weaken". Both concepts belong to the category of means of musical expression from the section "Dynamics".
Why change dynamics?
If musicians performed everything with the same sound, it would be of little interest to listen to them. Amplification and attenuation of sound is used to convey various emotional states.
To reflect joy, triumph, passion, delight, excitement, the apotheosis of struggle, it is customary to use the nuance of forte (loudly). When they want to convey tenderness, sadness, melancholy, peace, they often use the nuance of the piano (quietly).
The need for crescendos and diminuendos usually arises in the transition from one state to another. Crescendo can convey a gradual increase in excitement, an increase in intensity of feelings, tension of emotions, or the effect of approaching something.
With the help of this nuance in his 7th symphony, Shostakovich depicts the horror of the approaching fascist invasion. The meaning of the word "crescendo" is also well illustrated by Mussorgsky's play "Cattle" (cycle "Pictures at an Exhibition"), where with the help ofof this technique, the approach of a cart drawn by oxen is transmitted. The subsequent reduction of the sonority on the diminuendo creates the effect of removing the wagon.
Image of the nuance of the crescendo in sheet music
Usually it is depicted in music with the word crescendo or abbreviated cresc. In addition, everyone who studies music knows from childhood that a crescendo is a fork with an extension. The word diminuendo or dim is used to depict the nuance of reducing the strength of sound. As well as a "fork" with an oppositely directed expansion.
Very often it is necessary that the sound increase not abruptly, but gradually. In this case, next to the nuance of crescendo, another Italian musical term is added - poco a poco, which means "little by little".
How is amplification created?
How to amplify the sound in singing, everyone can imagine. Approximately the same mechanism operates when amplifying the sound while playing wind instruments.
All musicians who play instruments of the string-bow group know that a crescendo is an acceleration of the movement of the bow without pinching the strings.
The conductor of the orchestra, wanting to increase the dynamics of sound, uses a gradual enlargement of gestures, spreading his arms to a wider distance, as if increasing the visual volume of the space covered.
At the same time, in all these cases, it is quite possible to change the strength of the sound, remaining on a single note. That is, gradually increase or decrease the sound without changing the pitch.
Application of crescendoand the diminuendo on the piano is not the same as on other instruments. Everything is much more complicated here, and there are subtleties.
Increasing the volume on keyboards
The mechanics of keyboard instruments that existed before the appearance of the piano did not allow them to gradually increase or decrease in sound strength.
The design of the organs included a variety of levers for switching registers. This gave a variety of timbres and influenced the volume.
To increase the dynamics, additional manuals (keyboards) were created that reproduced sounds with an octave doubling, enriching them with overtones and creating the illusion of a change in volume.
However, even such, not too significant, gradations could only arise suddenly, while a crescendo is a gradual increase. Such a miracle became possible only with the advent of the hammer mechanism of the piano.
A huge number of timbres and dynamic gradations can be reproduced on a modern piano, depending on the degree and quality of touching the keys. However, there are also limitations. The mechanics of the piano is designed in such a way that any sound extraction instantly causes its degradation.
The decay of a sound begins immediately after its birth, therefore, to create the illusion of a crescendo, the duration of the notes should be such that one sound does not have time to decay before the next is taken.
On the same sound or chord it is impossible not only to make a crescendo, but also to keep the dynamics at the same level. The inevitable diminuendo happens by default.
There is just one little trick: right after you play a chord or sound, "pick up" it with the right pedal. Overtone enrichment will create a slight fork of the crescendo for a short time.
But don't be upset. The piano has enough advantages to afford this little weakness.
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