Sempre piano

As Printed on a Score

Printed below the staff, as words or as sempre p, at the start of a passage or as a reminder partway through. It does not set a new level so much as forbid change: the p holds until a new dynamic or a cresc. explicitly overrides it.

Abbreviations: sempre p

How Composers Use It

Write sempre p where performers are likely to grow louder on their own — rising lines, accumulating repetitions, entries piling up, a crescendo implied by the harmony. It is a guard against instinct rather than a new instruction. Pair it with what should still move (sempre p ma espressivo) so the passage does not go flat, and cancel it clearly when you do want growth.

Example

Liszt, Transcendental Étude No. 5 (“Feux follets”), m. 117: “sempre piano”, printed with a “ten.” in the same bar.

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