Sempre pianissimo

As Printed on a Score

Printed below the staff, as words or as sempre pp, often at the very start of a movement and often joined to other directions (sempre pianissimo e staccato). It holds the pp against change until a new dynamic or cresc. lifts it.

Abbreviations: sempre pp

How Composers Use It

Sempre pp sets up suspense: the listener senses energy held under the surface. Beethoven uses it to keep a fast movement whispering for long stretches, so that the eventual forte arrives as an event. Give the players something to hold on to — a clear articulation, a firm rhythm — because sustained pp tends to drift upward, and mark the point where it ends unmistakably.

Example

Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major (“Eroica”), third movement (Scherzo), first violins, m. 1: “sempre pianissimo e stacc.” at pp, the instruction the Scherzo opens with.

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