Poco piano

As Printed on a Score

Printed below the staff as words, or in older scores inside a tempo heading (Largo ed un poco piano). Like any dynamic it holds until the next marking cancels it.

How Composers Use It

Rather soft: a little more presence than p, with the sense of holding back rather than whispering. It is useful where a full p would let a line disappear — a melody in a thick texture, an accompaniment under voices — and in older music as a general caution to the ensemble at the start of a movement. Today mp says much the same more familiarly; choose poco piano when the softness should read as restraint.

Example

Bach, Mass in B minor, BWV 232, first Kyrie, flute 1, m. 5: “Largo ed uno poco piano.” heads the fugue that follows the four-bar slow introduction.

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