Sotto voce

As Printed on a Score

Printed below the staff or between the staves, usually with or in place of a soft dynamic, and often combined — sotto voce e ben legato, e sotto voce, sotto voce misterioso. Its scope is the passage it introduces, until a new dynamic or character word; it can also stand at the head of a movement, as in the opening of Brahms’s Third Symphony finale (p e sotto voce).

Abbreviations: s.v.

How Composers Use It

Sotto voce implies not just softness but intimacy and secrecy — as if the music is being confided. Use it for hushed passages that should feel private, whispered, or conspiratorial. It is a character marking as much as a dynamic one.

Example

Beethoven's String Quartet Op. 132, third movement — sotto voce passages in the "Holy Song of Thanksgiving" create an atmosphere of sacred intimacy.

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