Sempre fortissimo

As Printed on a Score

Printed below the staff, as words or as sempre ff, at the head of a loud passage or as a reminder within it, often combined with character words (sempre fortissimo e con strepito). It holds ff until a new dynamic or dim. intervenes.

Abbreviations: sempre ff

How Composers Use It

Use it to sustain a climax across a span where players might otherwise ease off — long tutti, repeated chords, a pedal point building to a cadence. Sustained ff is tiring and can harden the tone, so give winds places to breathe and ask whether every player needs to be at full strength. Placed in one section only, it can keep a melody from being covered when the rest of the orchestra is also loud.

Example

Bruckner, Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, finale, first violins, m. 476: “sempre ff”, two bars after the violins divide (“divisi”).

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