Mit Gewalt

As Printed on a Score

Printed over a part — often brass — at a climax or accented passage, lower-case, beside sf or ff. It lasts for that passage and is not formally cancelled; the next dynamic or character word replaces it.

How Composers Use It

With force, with violence: beyond ff, a request for the most powerful, even brutal attack. Unlike kräftig (strong), Gewalt implies violence, so it belongs to rare moments of extremity — Mahler gives it to horns near a climax. Pair it with accents and dynamics, and remember that brass pushed too hard turn coarse.

Example

Mahler, Symphony No. 5, second movement, horns, m. 491: “mit Gewalt”, with sf accents in the next two bars.

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