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The swell division of an organ, or its expression pedal.
Printed as Sw. or Swell over or between the organ staves to assign a passage to the swell manual; it holds until another manual is named. Swell-pedal movements are shown with hairpins.
Abbreviations: Sw.
The swell division stands in a box with shutters, so its sound can grow and fade; use it for expressive crescendos and diminuendos and for soft, distant colours. It is usually softer than the great. Name the manual for each passage, and use hairpins to show the swell pedal.
Swell 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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