His speciality was extreme delicacy, and his pianissimo extraordinary.
The second appearance of the latter leads to an urging, restless coda in A minor, which closes in the same key and pianissimo with a few bars of the simple, serene, now veiled, first strain.
As for the famous octave passages which occur in it, he began them pianissimo and continued thus without much increase in loudness.
The pianissimo of one hundred violins is a very much finer pianissimo and at the same time infinitely richer and further carrying than the pianissimo of a solo violin.
Just as the pianissimo of many violins is a finer pianissimo than that of a solo violin, so a much more exquisitely soft effect can be produced on a large brass group than on a few brass instruments or a single one.
Through the medium of this touch pianissimo effects are possible which no other mechanism can reach, for passages of the most extreme delicacy and softness still retain the quality of vitality and clearness of outline.
He had also a fad for playing Schubert melodies on the violin with the most attenuated pianissimo effects, and occasionally his hearers would listen intently after the tone had ceased, imagining that they still heard a trace of it.
Another piece of his which made a great effect in his concerts and was a general favorite of students was the "Aeolian Murmurs," a pleasant melody with a lot of fine pianissimo work to represent the murmurs.
To mark your own 'March Wind' pianissimo and then play it fortissimo.
Mason tells me that in these pianissimo runs in alt, which abound in so many of his works, Gottschalk's fingers were like little steel hammers, the tone being perfectly clear and like a bell, but not pianissimo in the true sense of the term.
In fact by varying the degree of pressure of the feet on the pumping pedals the pianolist can vary the degree of sound from a whispered pianissimo to the strongest fortissimo.
The tenors sing a short pianissimo chorus about these dark-eyed girls, whom they always court and follow.
The two first measures are so pianissimo that we scarcely hear them, but the vague and far-away voices come slowly nearer.
This solo of Elsa's is one of the most difficult to sing because of its many sustained pianissimo tones.
Stiefel, in the softest pianissimo of his pedal reed-stop of a masculine voice, and laid his snow-white hand on the soft, raven hair upon her forehead.
He held this stork's-beak of a yard-measure between his teeth as described in order to magnify the inaudible pianissimo of his piano into a fortissimo at its upper end.
How can we imagine at this time Julius Caesar and Hannibal Hamlin and Lucretia Borgia at some time or other stubbed their bare toes against a root and filled the horizon with pianissimo wails.
After a short recitative the storm dies away, and the choral phrases of rejoicing end in a pianissimo effect.
After a short prelude, consisting of a beautiful pianissimo movement, mainly for the violins, and very Wagnerish in its general style, the first act opens in a hall of the King's palace at Memphis.
I remember de Pachmann--a close interpreter of certain sides of Chopin--playing this coda piano, pianissimo and prestissimo.
Yet Halle heard Chopin at his last Paris concert, February, 1848, play the two forte passages in the Barcarolle "pianissimo and with all sorts of dynamic finesse.
In reply to questions he slily answered that he needed a forte as he had heard nothing but pianissimo the entire evening!
The second appearance of the latter leads to an urging, restless coda in A minor, which closes in the same key and pianissimo with a few bars of the simple, serene, now veiled first strain.
This is precisely what Rubinstein did, and his pianissimo was a whisper.
His pianissimo was an enchanting whisper, his forte seemed powerful by contrast so numberless were the gradations, so widely varied his dynamics.
It begins pianissimo and is gradually worked to the extreme pitch of true Dervish delirium, culminating in the exclamation, "Great Prophet, hail!
It begins with a slow movement in massive chords, gathering animation as it proceeds, and closing pianissimo on the words, "There is none that searcheth or understandeth.
It is followed by a pianissimochorus of the guards whispering to each other to "secure the passes round the glen.
The third number ("When Thou the stormy Sea art crossing") is given out by the soprano and repeated by the female chorus with a charming pianissimo effect.
The Ring Motive occurs both in voice and orchestra in mysterious pianissimo (like an echo of Alberich's sinister thoughts), and is followed by the Motive of Renunciation.
After reaching a forceful climax it passes over to the Motive of the Ring, which rises from pianissimo to a crashing climax.
The Ring Motive is heard, and then, as the waves change into nebulous clouds, the billowy accompaniment rises pianissimo until, with a repetition of the Ring Motive, the action passes to the second scene.
The exposition ends with some dreamy, pianissimo reminiscences of the closing theme in the mediant keys of F, D and B major, delicately scored for the wood-wind instruments and horns.
His pianissimo begins where other pianists end theirs.
It is acknowledged by all who heard him that his technic outshone all others; he had the whispering and crystalline pianissimo of Joseffy, the liquidity of Thalberg's touch, with the resistless power of a Rubinstein.
If he plays a pianissimo passage the effect is as clear and sweet as a perfectly attuned silver bell, and his graduated increase or diminution of tone is the acme of artistic finish.
The overture opens with a pianissimo prelude for organ in chorale form, followed by an orchestral fugue well worked up, but very quiet in character.
Singing pianissimo in the beginning is another fallacy.
Singing pianissimo is another fallacy for a young voice.
The pianissimo of a cultivated singer is silence compared to the tone emitted by vocalists of the main strength order, when required to produce soft tone.
Adult voices show the same tendency to increase the volume of tone when first applying words to a passage practicedpianissimo with a vowel-sound.
His natural voice was full and open, and was sent forth without the slightest artifice, and when he sang pianissimo his voice retained its original quality.
She used her pianissimo tones so as to make them resemble an effect of ventriloquism.
It was during the ecstatic pianissimo just before the final section that their hands clasped.
He repeated his chord pianissimo and held it down, reached up and echoed it in the upper half of the keyboard; then struck, hard, two octaves in the bass.
The effect of the pianissimo moaning of the basses before the soprano set in was overwhelming: it was like the vulture which, resting with easy wing on the dark morning cloud, spies around for booty.
There was a struggling, a separating, a wandering on, and out of the subdued pianissimo there arose and floated in space a gentle voice in E-flat minor.
When the mechanism is sufficiently free from resistance that a goodpianissimo can be sung then the conditions are right to begin to build toward a forte.
A perfect swell, that is, the ability to go from pianissimo to full voice and return, on any tone in the compass, without a break, and without sacrificing the tone quality.
It had really musical modulations, rising from pianissimo to fortissimo on the wings of nicely graded crescendos, and returning whence it had come with a sort of rippling gurgle that was mighty fetching.
The three sat across the aisle from me, and inasmuch as Nature had not seen fit to supply their vocal organs with soft pedals, or pianissimo stops, I became an unwitting, though not unwilling, listener to their conversation.
