Mancando

As Printed on a Score

Printed below the staff over the bars where the sound fails, usually at the end of a phrase. It ends at the next dynamic or expressive word.

How Composers Use It

A fading that sounds like strength giving out. It gives a diminuendo a reason, which helps a player shape it: the line should seem to lose energy rather than be turned down. Mozart uses it in the slow movement of his C minor Sonata; today dim. or morendo are more familiar, so reach for mancando when the fading should feel involuntary rather than planned.

Example

Mozart, Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K. 457, second movement (Adagio), m. 15: “mancando”, taking the music from p to pp right after a crescendo to f.

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