Con gran forza

As Printed on a Score

Printed above or below the staff at the passage it governs, usually with f or ff; it lasts until a contrasting dynamic or expression word.

How Composers Use It

With great force: maximum weight and energy, heavier than f alone. It describes the quality of the playing — weighted attacks, full bow, heavy arm — so pair it with an actual dynamic. In winds and brass it asks for the fullest tone the dynamic allows. Reserve it for culminating passages; repeated, it dulls.

Example

Beach, Symphony in E minor (“Gaelic”), Op. 32, fourth movement (Allegro di molto), violin 1, m. 480: “con gran forza”.

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