In music, a crescendo is a gradual volume increase, and a decrescendo is a gradual volume decrease.
"The profile of music (crescendo or decrescendo) is continuously tracked by the cardiovascular and respiratory systems," Bernardi said.
The opposite was true with
decrescendos, a gradual decrease in the music's volume.
Durations in music, as I usually compose them (with electronic means, for example), are sometimes malleable, so that notes also permit crescendos and
decrescendos with an internal evolution of color, and one can listen into the sound, as if into a substance.
The animated quality of the work is intensified by the continuously rising and falling lines, paralleled by gentle crescendos and
decrescendos.
Tell the singer to crescendo and "cry out the tone" as the forte and fortissimo dynamics are reached; and then, decrescendo, letting the tone become progressively breathier upon return to the piano and pianissimo dynamic levels.
Decrescendo exercises and soft singing are useful for helping these singers.
For example, a teacher might sing a student's name, "Ma-ry," to help the student produce a
decrescendo in a two-note slur or sing "Go to here" at the point of climax in a phrase.
When I sing the Faust aria, I always make a
decrescendo when I sing the high C.
Hudson explains her editorial choices in both the critica l commentary and her thoughtful introductory discussion of notational variations in Verdi's slurs, crescendos,
decrescendos, and accents.
Moreover, we might reasonably hope that, were a sensitive conductor to implement the many corrections made in this new edition - just in the placement of crescendos and
decrescendos, for example - a more appropriately nuanced performance would be the result.
Simrock reversed the symbol to a
decrescendo, a rather unconvincing reading.