Più dolce

As Printed on a Score

Printed beside the dynamic at a repeat or continuation of a phrase, often handed from one instrument to another — a horn marked più dolce, then the flutes. It holds until another character direction; sempre più dolce asks for a continuing increase.

Also spelled: piu dolce

How Composers Use It

Più dolce is relative: sweeter and softer than what came just before, so it presumes an existing dolce or a gentle context. It is ideal for an echo, a repeated phrase or a hand-off between instruments, where a literal dynamic would be too blunt. Brahms uses it this way in the first movement of his Fourth Symphony. Add a lower dynamic if you need the level to drop, since più dolce is primarily about tone.

Example

Brahms, Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98, first movement, flute 1, m. 104: “piu dolce”, marked in the flutes and oboe a bar after the first horn receives the same words.

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