En éteignant

As Printed on a Score

Printed below or above the staff where the fade begins, sometimes followed by dashes or a hairpin showing how far it runs. The dying-away continues until the next dynamic marking.

Also spelled: en eteignant

How Composers Use It

From éteindre, to extinguish: it asks for the sound to fade to nothing or nearly nothing — more complete than a diminuendo, with a sense of the light going out. French composers use it at phrase ends and closes. Boulanger follows it at once with an mf and lourd, a reminder that, like diminuendo, it governs only until the next dynamic. Place the target dynamic where the fade should end.

Example

Boulanger, Clairières dans le ciel, “Demain fera un an”, piano, m. 68: “en éteignant”, with mf and “lourd” in the following bar.

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