Forte-Piano
The mark fp — loud, then immediately soft
Related
Forte-piano (fp) means loud, then immediately soft: the attack is f, then it drops to p. It creates "a cry swallowed at once" — impact followed by withdrawal, common at dramatic turns or sighs.
It differs from diminuendo: fp is an instant switch, diminuendo a process; it also differs from sforzando: sfz stresses the attack, fp stresses the immediate retreat after it. The usual mistake is to play fp as "loud then gradually softer" — the point is "immediately".
Read deeper → sforzando
Sources
- fp 记号的演奏含义，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Dynamics"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.