The Short

NOTATION OF ACCENTS AND DYNAMICS 79
he used fz in piano sections he seems not to have wanted a forte continuation. This may be particularly true of his later
works (Ex. 3.26.) Haydn, unlike Mozart, never adopted fzp (sfp) as a regular marking to show whether or not a return
to the prevailing dynamic was required.
Mozart was quite systematic in this respect as in so many others. When he wanted an sfwithin piano, he generally
cautioned the performer to return to the original dynamic by writing sfp, as a comparison of his use of sfp in piano and
sf in forte sections indicates (Ex. 3.27.) Other composers of the late eighteenth century, for example Piccinni and
Sacchini, had also adopted this practice. Beethoven, however, though he sometimes used sfp to clarify his intention,
often used sf in quiet music, particularly in earlier works, where he undoubtedly intended an immediate return to piano
(Ex. 3.28.) At this stage he only seems to have used sfp, if the previous marking was ‘forte’ and he required an abrupt
decrease to piano after the sf (Ex. 3.29.) By the time of the op. 59 quartets he had begun to mark sfp regularly in piano
passages or to indicate the position and extent of the decrescendo by means of a ‘hairpin’ (Ex. 3.30.) Other composers
appear quite consciously to have used fairly complex combinations of these markings, choosing a variety of accent and
dynamic instructions, and notation for different instruments or voices, in order to obtain the desired effect. Cherubini,
who rarely left any ambiguity about the dynamic consequences of his sfmarkings in his late period, shows particular
fastidiousness in this respect (Ex. 3.31.)
Ex. 3.24. (a) Liszt, Eine Faust Symphonie, i, ‘Faust’ (strings); (b) Brahms, Second Symphony op. 73/i