Subito fortissimo

As Printed on a Score

Printed below the staff as subito ff, sub. ff or ff subito, at the note of the outburst; it lasts until the next dynamic and normally follows soft music with no crescendo between.

Abbreviations: subito ff, sub. ff, ff subito

How Composers Use It

An outburst that should seem to come from nowhere: keep the music before it quiet and steady, and make sure full sound is available at once — brass need a breath, strings room on the bow. Scoring helps as much as the letters: adding instruments at the moment of the ff makes the leap unmistakable, while asking the same few players to jump from p to ff rarely sounds as large.

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