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Shadings of dynamics and colour; "sans nuances" means without shading.
Mostly printed inside a phrase, chiefly sans nuances (flat, unshaded) above a part, which lasts until a new dynamic or an instruction to shape the line. Prefaces and footnotes also use nuances for the dynamic markings themselves.
Sans nuances asks for a deliberately flat line, every note at the same level and colour, often for a numb or ritual effect. It is stronger than printing a single dynamic, because players shade instinctively and the word forbids it. Lili Boulanger uses it in Clairières dans le ciel. In French usage nuances also simply means the dynamics: respecter les nuances is to observe them.
Boulanger, Clairières dans le ciel, “Demain fera un an”, piano, m. 94: “sans nuances”, a bar after “un peu en dehors” and soon after a rit.
Nuances is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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