Verklingend

As Printed on a Score

Printed above or beside the notes that should fade — often a long held note or the end of a phrase — sometimes with lang or a fermata. It covers that sound until it has died away; a new dynamic starts the next event.

How Composers Use It

Verklingend means letting the sound fade naturally, the way a bell or a struck string decays — not a controlled diminuendo to a target level. It suits endings, held notes and the last echo of a phrase. On piano and harp the instrument does it for you; for winds and strings it asks for a diminuendo that sounds like resonance dying away. Close relatives are morendo and perdendosi.

Example

Mahler, Symphony No. 5, fifth movement (Rondo-Finale), Erstes Horn in F., m. 1: “lang” and “verklingend” over an fp; the first violins echo both words in m. 2, before “Allegro.” at m. 3.

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