De

As Printed on a Score

A linking word inside longer directions rather than a direction itself: de plus en plus (more and more), d’une sonorité large (with a broad tone), Mouvement de Marche (march tempo), baguettes de bois (wooden sticks). The contracted forms are du, des, and d’ before a vowel. It takes the scope of the phrase it sits in.

Also spelled: d’, du, des

How Composers Use It

Mostly grammar, but two uses matter to a reader. De plus en plus and de moins en moins turn a comparative into a continuing process, the French equivalent of sempre più and sempre meno. And de introduces the kind or source of something — a Mouvement de Marche, baguettes de bois — so the noun after it, not de itself, carries the instruction.

Example

Satie, Ludions, “La grenouille américaine”, piano, m. 33: “Ralentir de plus en plus”, while the voice has “Moins vite” in the same bar.

Related Terms