Très doux

As Printed on a Score

Printed under the staff like a dynamic, or above a vocal line, at the start of the phrase it colours; in French scores it usually stands beside pp or p rather than replacing them. It lasts until the next character or dynamic word, and often comes in pairs — très doux et très lié, très doux et très expressif.

Also spelled: tres doux

How Composers Use It

Doux names a manner as much as a level — soft and sweet together, dolce with the quiet built in — so très doux asks for a gentle, unpressed tone, not merely fewer decibels. Debussy and Ravel use it for openings and returns where a line should float. Pair it with an explicit pp if the level matters, and do not stack it on dolce, which says the same thing twice.

Example

Debussy, Cinq Poèmes de Baudelaire, “Le jet d’eau”, piano, m. 1: “très doux” stands beside a pp under the heading “Andantino tranquillo”.

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