Composers bring additional dramatic impact to musical passages by adding the prefix “subito” before a dynamic.
In Italian, Subito means suddenly. When Subito is added before a dynamic indication, it is abbreviated as a lower-case letter “s.”
= SUBITO PIANO = SUDDENLY SOFT
= SUBITO FORTE = SUDDENLY LOUD
Commonly, this immediate dynamic fluctuation is followed by the suffix “forzando” which means “forcing.” (Abbreviated as the letter “z”)
Sforzando has a crisp accent at the beginning of the note.
DRAMATIC DYNAMIC CHANGES
