Sempre dolce

As Printed on a Score

Printed beside the dynamic at the start of a passage, often after an earlier dolce, to say that the sweetness continues through a new phrase or texture. Sempre means it lasts until a contrasting direction explicitly replaces it.

How Composers Use It

Sempre dolce prevents a performer from dropping the dolce character when the music changes — a new phrase, a fuller texture, a modulation — or after a louder passage. Brahms uses it in his Fourth Symphony’s slow movement as the dynamic falls back to p, giving the first violins the reminder while the seconds have plain dolce. Directly after dolce it is redundant; use it where a reader might otherwise assume a change.

Example

Brahms, Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98, second movement, first violins, m. 41: “sempre dolce” as the dynamic returns from f to p; the second violins are marked plain “dolce”.

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