Mezzo piano

As Printed on a Score

Printed below the staff as mp (above it in vocal parts); the words are almost never written out. It lasts until the next dynamic, hairpin or cresc./dim. It joined the common vocabulary late — rare in Classical scores, routine from the later 19th century — so in Mozart or Haydn an mp may well be editorial.

Abbreviations: mp

How Composers Use It

Mezzo piano is the dynamic of conversation — present but not assertive. Use it for inner voices, accompanimental figures, and secondary melodic lines that should be heard without competing with the primary melody.

Example

Ravel, Miroirs, No. 3 “Une barque sur l’océan”, piano, m. 46: “très expressif” with mp in the same bar — expression asked for at a moderate level, in a piece headed “Très enveloppé de pédales”.

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