NOTATIO

Does anyone know approximately when (or by whom) PPP first came to
be used to indicate extremely quiet passages?

As Beethoven used it as a regular dynamics, I would guess that it could be found already in the Baroque, with some extravagant composers.

I'm not sure, musicus, but your question brought to mind my favorite fff of all time. Chopin op. 10 no . 12:
So triple dynamics were being regularly used during the first half of the 19th century,

In the first quarter of the 18th century, dynamics were usually restricted to piano and forte, with the occasional pp. Other terms and symbols were used, such as shapes filled in to varying degrees. (Performers would of course provide their own dynamic performance practices, e.g. playing a repeated phrase at a different level; naturally swelling the phrases, etc.)

The mezzos crept in by the middle of the century, I'd say. Leopold Mozart describes mezzo as a moderator on piano and forte in 1756; Haydn used everything from pp to ff. Wolfgang Mozart was one of the first to use sforzando.

I suspect ppp came in at the beginning of the 19th century, as John suggests. Whether the first documented use is observed, I don't know. It's an easy leap once you've established p and pp. (Similarly pppp and beyond.)

ppp is listed in the Tromlitz flute treatise from 1791, so must have been in use by then anyway.

Hmmm...very interesting.

Fred G. Unn wrote: ↑26 Aug 2023, 13:17 ppp is listed in the Tromlitz flute treatise from 1791, so must have been in use by then anyway.

According to Sandra Rosenbaum Performance Practices in Classic Piano Music , Beethoven used mp, p, pp, ppp, mf, f, ff in his 32 piano sonatas and more soft dynamics than loud. According to her the first use of ppp in his piano music is in the last movement of op. 53 which was published in 1805:
She also states that Beethoven used more extreme dynamics than his contemporaries. So perhaps we have narrowed the first uses of ppp down to the last decade of the 18th century.

An excerpt from Türk's Klavierschule of 1789. Interestingly the later edition of 1802 is the same. So apparently the more conservative musicians were still not acknowledging ppp or fff at these points:

That is something. Thank you for the excellent specific example.

John Ruggero wrote: ↑26 Aug 2023, 15:35 According to Sandra Rosenbaum Performance Practices in Classic Piano Music , Beethoven used mp, p, pp, ppp, mf, f, ff in his 32 piano sonatas and more soft dynamics than loud. According to her the first use of ppp in his piano music is in the last movement of op. 53 which was published in 1805:

op 53.3.png

She also states that Beethoven used more extreme dynamics than his contemporaries. So perhaps we have narrowed the first uses of ppp down to the last decade of the 18th century.

Can anyone translate the **) footnote in John's top image? It looks like it's saying something about ppp but Google Translate on my phone isn't too happy with it.