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Dynamics & Expression

Fortepiano (fp)

Pronounced FOR-teh PYAH-nohWritten as fp

Definition

Fortepiano, written fp, means loud then immediately soft: attack the note forte and drop at once to piano. The same word also names the early piano of Mozart's and Beethoven's time.

Fortepiano, written fp, combines two dynamics in one instant: play the note forte, then drop at once to piano. It gives a strong attack followed by a soft sound, a quick flash of energy rather than a sustained loud passage.

A three-bar grand-staff example in C major and 4/4. In bars 1 and 2 the right hand plays a half-note chord marked fp followed by two soft quarter notes; the left hand plays half notes. Bar 3 ends on a dotted half-note C chord and a quarter rest.
An original three-bar passage: each fp chord is struck firmly, and the right-hand notes that follow are played softly, as fp asks at the piano.

How it works on different instruments

On a string or wind instrument, or for a singer, the change happens inside the note: a loud start, then the same note continues softly. Orchestras often follow an fp with a crescendo hairpin, so the note starts strong, falls away and grows again, a dramatic effect in Classical and Romantic music.

On the piano, a struck note cannot get softer except by fading. So at the keyboard fp usually means: strike the note or chord firmly, then play what follows at p. In slow music you can also let the loud chord die away a little before the soft notes continue. The example shows that reading: each fp chord is struck firmly, and the notes after it are soft.

fp, sfp and sforzando

  • Sforzando (sfz, sf): a strong accent on one note, after which the music returns to its level.
  • sfp (sforzando-piano): a sharper accent, then soft at once, very close to fp.
  • fp is a dynamic event; the accent mark (>) is an accent within the current dynamic.

Fortepiano, the instrument

The same word, usually written as one word without italics, names the early piano of the 18th and early 19th centuries, the kind of instrument Mozart and the young Beethoven played. It is lighter in tone than a modern piano, and many musicians use it today to perform music of that period. That is a separate meaning; in a score, the letters fp mark the dynamic.

An fp jumps between two rungs of the Dynamic Ladder in an instant.

Common questions

What does fp mean in music?

fp stands for fortepiano: play the note loudly (forte), then drop immediately to soft (piano).

Is a fortepiano the same as a piano?

As an instrument, the fortepiano is the early form of the piano, from the 18th and early 19th centuries, with a lighter, clearer tone. As a dynamic marking, fp means loud then immediately soft.

Practice it: free worksheets