NOTATIO

I'm writing a piece for orchestra, and I want to discourage the brass section from being too loud.... I was wondering how to convey 'only forte' -- implying "save something for later" -- but of course "solo forte" might be misinterpreted as a "solo" (and therefore standing out).

Or should I just not bother and leave it for the conductor to wrangle?

Maybe (non troppo).

As a choral conductor myself, I take it upon myself to understand the score well enough to know that there's a section coming up that needs to grow to fortissimo. Certainly the suggestion wouldn't hurt, but it's really going to be up to the conductor's ear to decide when they've reached forte and when they've reached something more.

So, if it were me, I'd just say forte and leave it to the competency of the conductor to work out.

Musical dynamics can be kinda tricky, because the concept is inherently fluid and multifaceted (register, textures, motion, harmony, doubling, spacing, and of course - style). Not really sure what kind of music it is, but more info would definitely help us. If it is only "notational term", just write "poco f".

David Ward wrote: ↑31 Aug 2023, 16:10 Maybe (non troppo).

Of course. That's probably the one!

I'll show you the results in due course. It's a very silly idea to score the organ part of a 'choral classic' for full orchestra...!

Something I've found quite effective is to write "poco F" (not pf with both letters as music font, as that can be easily mistaken for the non-existing piano-forte (or does it exist?! )