Alzate sordini

As Printed on a Score

Printed above each string part, or over the section, where the mutes come off — ideally over rests long enough for the players to remove them. It cancels con sordini and holds until the next con sordini.

Also spelled: alzate le sordine

How Composers Use It

Rarer than via sordini but identical in meaning; Tchaikovsky uses it. Taking off a mute needs a few seconds — a bar or two of rest at a moderate tempo — so place the instruction where the players are silent, or the sound will change mid-phrase. After a long muted passage the moment the mutes come off is itself a change of colour; put it where the music should brighten.

Example

Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6 (“Pathétique”), first movement, first violins, m. 127: “alzate sordini”, a bar after an ff — the mutes put on at m. 89 (“con sordini, teneramente, molto cantabile…”) come off.

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