Al niente

As Printed on a Score

Printed at the end of a diminuendo — dim. al niente, or at the tip of a hairpin — and in modern scores often replaced by a small circle (o) or the letter n at the hairpin’s end. The sound should reach silence there; the next entry starts afresh.

Also spelled: a niente

How Composers Use It

Fading to nothing is easier for some instruments than others: strings and voices can vanish, while winds and brass risk a note that stops rather than disappears, and plucked or struck sounds simply decay. Give the fade time and a register where soft playing is secure. Its mirror, dal niente, asks a sound to emerge from silence.

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