En diminuant

As Printed on a Score

Printed under the staff where a diminuendo begins, usually followed by dashes or a dotted line to where it ends, and often coupled with a tempo change in the same phrase. It lasts until the line ends or the next dynamic arrives.

How Composers Use It

En diminuant is the French diminuendo. French composers reach for it, rather than dim., when the rest of the page is in French or when they want to bind the fade to another gradual change in a single phrase, such as a slowing. It describes a process, so always give the destination dynamic. If the music should fade to nothing, en se perdant is the more specific word.

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