Tout

As Printed on a Score

Printed inside a phrase to mean “all” or “entirely”, agreeing with its noun — avec toute la force, avec toute la voix — or as an adverb in tout à fait (entirely) and tout doucement (very gently). Its scope is the phrase it belongs to. Tous, “all the players”, is a separate orchestral cue.

Also spelled: toute, toutes

How Composers Use It

Tout makes a direction absolute: avec toute la force asks for everything the singer has, not merely f. Use it sparingly and at a real climax, because a second toute la force has nowhere to go. As an adverb it intensifies gently — tout doucement is softer and more intimate than doucement — and in orchestral parts keep it distinct from tous, which concerns who plays rather than how.

Example

Viardot, 6 Mélodies et une havanaise, “J’en mourrai”, voice, m. 33: “avec toute la force”, in a song headed “Agitato”.

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