Forzando

As Printed on a Score

Printed below the note as fz, occasionally as the full word or as forzato. It accents one note or chord and then the prevailing dynamic resumes. Readers treat fz, sf and sfz as close equivalents; any difference is the composer’s habit rather than a rule.

Abbreviations: fz

Also spelled: forzato

How Composers Use It

Some composers prefer fz to sf by habit — Chopin’s scores are full of fz — and players hear no systematic difference. What matters is context: in a soft passage it is a stress, in a loud one a hammer blow. If you need a degree, qualify it in words (poco forzando) rather than inventing new letters, and avoid stacking fz on every note of a figure.

Example

Cornelius, 3 Lieder, Op. 4, “In Lust und Schmerzen”, voice, m. 91: “forzando” with the German “stärker” in the same bar, three bars after a “poco forzando”.

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