Meaning of dynamic marking m
The dynamics palette features among other options the markings "m", "r" and "s". I have been thinking these were for some type of music I am not involved with and left them alone.
Now I found "m" in a score for string quartet (from 1826) and I have no clue what to do with it. Can anyone help me out?
Comments
m = Mezzo, r = Rinforzando, S = Sforzando, z =Z?, n = Niente, they are more accents than dynamics
In reply to m = Mezzo, r = Rinforzando, S by Jojo-Schmitz
Z is just z, as used in sfz (Sforzato)
In reply to Z is just z, as used in sfz by [DELETED] 5
I get that, but then these letters would always be combined with some other letters to make up the total marking (which leaves the question how to handle that combination; in Musescore 1.3 you could just type into the dynamic signs and the letters would show in this peculiar font used for dynamics--called MScore1; in Musescore 2 you get the standard text font if you try that so you have to use copy / paste to make up not commonly used signs that do not happen to be on the list).
But my question was how to interpret a marking that is just an "m" all by itself (after all this is how this "m" marking appears in typesets if you choose it from the palette and this is what I found in that 1826 autograph). I tried some Google searches and came up empty and I thought maybe this community has such know how.
In reply to I get that, but then these by azumbrunn
You can get the symbols with ctrl+shift plus the letter.
Taking the "mezzo" at face value, it would seem to mean just "medium" (or literally half) - something probably akin to what today we would normally notate mf, or perhaps they are trying to suggest something between mp and mf.
In reply to You can get the symbols with by Marc Sabatella
Thanks! You just made my life easier.
It appears that I stumbled over something truly rare. The same composer (Theodor Fröhlich) also uses "pf" a lot. I never saw that before either and it took me a long time to figure out it probably means più forte when I found a place where he has "pf" in three staffs and "più f" in the fourth at exactly the same place. This reading does not cause musical inconsistencies (such as "pf" following a "ff") anywhere in the piece, so I consider this settled.
The "m" riddle is still open though as it may also mean "meno" as in "meno forte"--a sort of echo effect and the exact analog to "pf" (and the "mf" has already a definition hence "m"?). The "mf" solution is unsatisfactory because "mf" appears more often in the score than "m" ("mp" is missing completely so maybe that's it?).