Hervortretend

As Printed on a Score

Printed directly above the one part that should emerge — often at a soft dynamic — and qualified as etwas, sehr or immer hervortretend. It lasts for the phrase or until the line rejoins the texture. Schoenberg and his pupils later replaced it with the Hauptstimme bracket.

How Composers Use It

Hervortretend is a balance instruction, not a dynamic: the marked line keeps its printed level but is played with more presence than its neighbours, so a ppp line can still be hervortretend. That lets you balance a texture without rewriting every dynamic. Mahler and Bruckner use it constantly for inner voices. Mark only the line that matters at that moment; two hervortretend lines at once cancel each other.

Example

Mahler, Symphony No. 5, second movement, clarinet, m. 91: “hervortretend” at ppp, four bars after the same part’s “etwas hervortretend” (m. 87).

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