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Gradually getting softer. Abbreviated decresc. or shown as a hairpin (>).
Decrescendo can be achieved by reducing instruments, changing register, thinning texture, or simply asking players to reduce volume. For long orchestral decrescendos, remove instruments one by one — the reverse of the crescendo layering technique.
Holst's "The Planets" — "Neptune, the Mystic" ends with a women's chorus decrescendo to silence, the last notes fading into nothingness.
Decrescendo is one of 228 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary, where every definition is written around how composers actually use the word.
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