Verlöschend

As Printed on a Score

Printed under or over the last notes of a phrase or passage, where the sound should die away; it covers those final notes and needs no cancelling.

Also spelled: verloeschend

How Composers Use It

Dying out, extinguishing — a fade to nothing, like morendo or estinto. It concerns dynamics and often tone colour. Use it for endings and for single instruments fading under a texture; pair it with a target dynamic or a hairpin to show the shape, and leave room after it for the silence it creates.

Example

Mahler, Symphony No. 5, first movement, trumpet, m. 391: “verlöschend”, two bars after a pp.

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