Sans augmenter

As Printed on a Score

Printed below or above the staff where a performer might be tempted to swell — on a rising line, a long note or a repeated figure. It holds the current dynamic until a new dynamic marking or a cresc. appears.

How Composers Use It

A preventive instruction: it forbids the natural crescendo that rising phrases, sequences or tension invite, keeping the level flat. Use it where the restraint itself is expressive, as Boulanger does in a phrase marked à mi-voix. It is clearer than repeating the dynamic, which a performer may read as a reminder rather than a prohibition.

Example

Boulanger, Clairières dans le ciel, “Deux ancolies”, voice, m. 4: “sans augmenter”, a bar after pp and “à mi-voix, très fin”.

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