Just wondering what effect on playback is expected when adding meno, poco, molto etc.
In my current instance, the composer simply writes meno, which I assume is in reference to the dynamic level. Then the horn has a series of three short phrases marked with <. I entered meno F < for the first, and then poco F < for the subsequent phrases. I have Reset dynamic level… unchecked in playback options, and was expecting each phrase to begin at the same dynamic. What I’m getting is a single cresc to FFF.
My expectation of the modifiers is that they would adjust half a step between standard levels, so poco F would be halfway between MF & F; molto F halfway between F & FF, etc. etc. Or else, the modifier has no playback effect at all. It seems, though, that the modifier is negating the dynamic altogether.
I believe that meno f means “less loud”. In other words, one dynamic step less than you were. Similarly, meno p, meaning “less quiet” actually gets louder. So it’s a relative term.
I’m not sure what poco f or molto f means. As modifiers, I’ve only seen them on hairpins, qualifying the scale of the change.
But a quick check in the Dynamics lane of the Key Editor shows that Dorico treats them as relative modifiers, too. poco f is +1 dynamic level; and molto f is +2.
Thanks for that, Ben. When you say +1 dynamic level, are you saying it turns F into FF, for instance?
Personally I’d say ‘ben F’ rather than ‘molto F’; and rarely at that – but the score I’m looking at is late 19th/early 20th C, and in several respects rather vague.
“poco f” seems to go up by half a step, whatever the preceding dynamic. (“A little louder.”)
Dorico uses a dynamic range of +6 to -6, and this gets converted to CC1 according to the dynamic curve in Playback Options. Depending on your curve, the effect of half a step may not be noticeable.
Yeesh, I don’t even know if I’ve really seen meno used much, and for good reason. As a player, especially if I was sight-reading, I would find that terribly easy to trip over, to see a dynamic direction, but then a smaller print meaning to literally go in the opposite direction of the marking. Combining that direction with hairpins is additionally confusing.
Anecdotally. I do come across poco f quite frequently. But rather than mf with attitude, I interpret it as a gentle f.
I’d always interpret piu f just means louder than before, even if it follows a ppp. So, yes, a succession of piu fs could end up as fff. How quickly it got there would be context specific.
meno f is just the opposite - quieter than before. But I admit it is rarer (I wonder why?)
I imagine that these various modifiers turn up often enough for Dorico to have made them available. On the matter of interpretation, it occurred to me that the original ‘meno … < < <’ would be easily interpreted by a musician in context, listening to what others are doing in the moment. The computer/playback, though…
It appears that Dorico’s implementation is definitely “a bit more than whatever was before”, ‘whatever’ being the specified dynamic level prior to engagement
