Part 7 (1/2)

_con grazia_ (with grace)

_con tenerezza_ (with tenderness)

_dolce_ (gently) (literally, sweetly)

_giocoso_ (humorously) (_cf._ jocose)

_giojoso_ (joyfully) (_cf._ joyous)

_con maesta_ } _maestoso_ } (majestically)

_pastorale_ (in pastoral, _i.e._, in simple and unaffected style)

_pomposo_ (pompously)

_scherzando_ } _scherzo_ } (jokingly)

_sotto voce_ (with subdued voice)

We shall close our discussion of the subject of dynamics with a brief presentation of a few practical matters with which every amateur conductor should be familiar.

The _pianissimo_ of choruses and orchestras is seldom soft enough. The extreme limit of soft tone is very effective in both choral and orchestral music, and most conductors seem to have no adequate notion of _how soft_ the tone may be made in such pa.s.sages. This is especially true of chorus music in the church service; and even the gospel singer Sankey is said to have found that the softest rather than the loudest singing was spiritually the most impressive.[18]

[Footnote 18: On the other hand, the criticism has been made in recent years that certain orchestral conductors have not sufficiently taken into consideration the size and acoustics of the auditoriums in which they were conducting, and have made their _pianissimos_ so soft that nothing at all could be heard in the back of the room. In order to satisfy himself that the tone is as soft as possible, and yet that it is audible, it will be well for the conductor to station some one of good judgment in the back of the auditorium during the concert, this person later reporting to the conductor in some detail the effect of the performance.]

_Pianissimo_ singing or playing does not imply a slower tempo, and in working with very soft pa.s.sages the conductor must be constantly on guard lest the performers begin to ”drag.” If the same virile and spirited response is insisted upon in such places as is demanded in ordinary pa.s.sages, the effect will be greatly improved, and the singing moreover will not be nearly so likely to fall from the pitch.

The most important voice from the standpoint of melody must in some way be made to stand out above the other parts. This may be done in two ways:

1. By making the melody louder than the other parts.

2. By subduing the other parts sufficiently to make the melody prominent by contrast.

The second method is frequently the better of the two, and should more frequently be made use of in ensemble music than is now the case in amateur performance.

The conductor of the Russian Symphony Orchestra, Modeste Altschuler, remarks on this point:

A melody runs through every piece, like a road through a country hillside. The art of conducting is to clear the way for this melody, to see that no other instruments interfere with those which are at the moment enunciating the theme. It is something like steering an automobile. When the violins, for instance, have the tune, I see to it that n.o.body hurries it or drags it or covers it up.

In polyphonic music containing imitative pa.s.sages, the part having the subject must be louder than the rest, especially at its first entrance. This is of course merely a corollary of the general proposition explained under number three, above.

In vocal music the accent and crescendo marks provided by the composer are often intended merely to indicate the proper p.r.o.nunciation of some part of the text. Often, too, they a.s.sist in the declamation of the text by indicating the climax of the phrase, _i.e._, the point of greatest emphasis.

The dynamic directions provided by the composer are intended to indicate only the broader and more obvious effects, and it will be necessary for the performer to introduce many changes not indicated in the score. Professor Edward d.i.c.kinson, in referring to this matter in connection with piano playing, remarks:[19]

After all, it is only the broader, more general scheme of light and shade that is furnished by the composer; the finer gradations, those subtle and immeasurable modifications of dynamic value which make a composition a palpitating, coruscating thing of beauty, are wholly under the player's will.

[Footnote 19: d.i.c.kinson, _The Education of a Music Lover_, p. 123.]