Accrescimento

As Printed on a Score

Printed as con accrescimento or sempre con accrescimento above the voice or between the piano staves, where a growth in intensity begins; it lasts until a new dynamic or an arrival point is reached.

Also spelled: con accrescimento

How Composers Use It

Accrescimento names a growth of intensity as much as of volume — closer to the German Steigerung than to a plain crescendo. Use it where the music should swell in emotional pressure over several bars, and mark the destination dynamic. It is rare, so it reads as deliberate; in bilingual editions it translates steigernd.

Example

Mahler, Kindertotenlieder, “Oft denk’ ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen”, voice, m. 66: “con accrescimento” beside the German “steigernd”, with ff two bars later.

Related Terms