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Strong, loud.
Printed above the staff or a vocal line as a word for f, sometimes beside the Italian (stark / forte in bilingual editions), and in phrases such as “sehr stark” or “ziemlich stark”. It holds until another dynamic.
Stark means strong as well as loud: a full, firm tone with body, not just volume. That makes it a natural German forte for singers and for lines that should sound resolute. Use stärker for a relative increase and sehr stark for a peak. Bilingual editions of Cornelius and Mahler print the Italian dynamic beside it — a reminder that the word works as a dynamic, not only as a mood.
Cornelius, Weihnachtslieder, Op. 8, “Die Hirten”, voice, m. 30: “stark” printed beside the Italian “forte”.
Stark is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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