morendo

dynamicsmoh-REN-dohfrom Italian

Dying away in both volume and tempo.

In Depth

Morendo means dying away — the music should fade in both volume and speed, as if the sound is expiring.‌‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‍‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‌‍‌ It combines diminuendo and rallentando into a single effect, creating a sense of the music dissolving into silence. The marking is more poetic and evocative than a simple dim. e rit. marking. It appears at the end of pieces or sections where the composer wants the music to seem to vanish rather than simply stop. Tchaikovsky, Mahler, and Debussy all used morendo to powerful effect, creating endings that linger in the silence after the last sound fades.

Did you know?

The final bars of Mahler's Ninth Symphony are marked ersterbend (dying away) — Mahler knew he was terminally ill when he wrote it. He never heard the work performed.