Sempre crescendo

As Printed on a Score

Printed below the staff as sempre cresc. or cresc. sempre, often a few bars after an earlier cresc. to keep the growth going, and sometimes in parentheses as a reminder. It runs until the dynamic it reaches.

Abbreviations: sempre cresc., cresc. sempre

How Composers Use It

Use it to stop a crescendo from stalling: printed partway through a long build, it tells players the first cresc. was not the whole story. Beethoven renews crescendos this way in every wind part at once, so the growth is shared. Pair it with the target dynamic, and in a long build let the orchestration grow too.

Example

Beethoven, Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, second movement (Adagio), flute, m. 39: “sempre cresc.”, renewing the cresc. of the bar before and reaching ff in the next bar; the oboes and clarinets carry the same words.

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