Dolce
Not merely soft — a sweetened tone
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Dolce is an expression mark: the sound should be soft, sweet, warm. It does not mean "quiet" — a dolce phrase can be loud as long as the tone is round and not piercing; nor does it mean "slow" — it describes quality and tone, not speed.
How it is made depends on the instrument: strings move the bow nearer the fingerboard with a softer stroke, winds use warmer air and a less sharp attack, the piano uses a slower key and more connected pedalling. The point of dolce is not volume but making the sound seem to stroke rather than cut.
Read deeper → Timbre
Sources
- dolce 的表情含义与演奏实现，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Dolce"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.