Sforzatissimo

As Printed on a Score

Printed below the staff at the note it strikes — sffz, sometimes sff — and it applies to that attack alone: the prevailing dynamic resumes at once. Read sff with care: it is an accent, not an ff that continues. Each repeated chord that needs the blow carries its own sign.

Abbreviations: sffz, sff

Also spelled: sforzandissimo

How Composers Use It

Reserve it for the single blow that must stand above every other accent in the passage; if it appears often it stops meaning more than sfz. Its force is relative to the surrounding dynamic, so it lands hardest out of ff or at the top of a crescendo. Make the dynamic after it clear (p, f), and use one spelling throughout a score.

Example

Chopin, Nocturne No. 20 in C-sharp minor (Lento con gran espressione, published posthumously), m. 17: “sff” comes with a cresc. two bars after “con forza”, and two more sff follow in m. 18.

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