Lexic.us

Definition of Crescendo

1. Adjective. Gradually increasing in volume.

2. Verb. Grow louder. "The music crescendoes here"

3. Noun. (music) a gradual increase in loudness.

Definition of Crescendo

1. a. & adv. With a constantly increasing volume of voice; with gradually increasing strength and fullness of tone; -- a direction for the performance of music, indicated by the mark, or by writing the word on the score.

2. n. A gradual increase in the strength and fullness of tone with which a passage is performed.

Definition of Crescendo

1. Noun. (music) An instruction to play gradually more loudly, denoted by a long, narrow angle with its apex on the left ( < ). ¹

2. Noun. (figuratively) A gradual increase of anything, especially to a dramatic climax. ¹

3. Noun. (figuratively nonstandard) The climax of a gradual increase. ¹

4. Verb. To increase in intensity, to reach or head for a crescendo. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Crescendo

1. [n -DOS or -DOES or -DI] / [v -DOED, -DOING, -DOS or -DOES]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Crescendo

crepuscular ray crepuscular rays crepuscularities crepuscularity crepuscularly crepuscule crepuscules crepusculine crepusculous crepusculum

crepy crerarite cresc crescence crescendi crescendo (current term) crescendo angina crescendo murmur crescendo sleep crescendoed

crescendoes crescendoing crescendos crescent crescent(a) crescent-cell anaemia crescent-cell anemia crescent-shaped crescent cell crescent cell anaemia

Literary usage of Crescendo

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Organ Registration: A Comprehensive Treatise on the Distinctive Quality of by Everett Ellsworth Truette (1919)
"CHAPTER VII THE GRAND crescendo A GRAND crescendo is a mechanical appliance, operated by means of a shoe similar to, and located beside, the balanced swell ..."

2. The Principles of Expression in Pianoforte Playing by Adolph Friedrich Christiani (1885)
"crescendo is an increase of power or intensity, the result of a pressure of ... crescendo, in its climax, reaches the height of excitement or tone- power ..."

3. A Primer of Organ Registration by Gordon Balch Nevin (1920)
"CHAPTER IX THE crescendo PEDAL The crescendo Pedal is perhaps the least understood and worst manipulated accessory of the modern organ. ..."

4. Music Notation and Terminology by Karl Wilson Gehrkens (1914)
"This second variety of crescendo offers a means of dramatic effect which may ... The difference between sforzando, rinforzando, and crescendo should now be ..."

5. Edinburgh Medical Journal (1902)
"With the permission of the editor, I will put before the readers of this journal the views I do hold as regards the causation of the crescendo murmur of ..."

6. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage by Inc. Merriam-Webster (1994)
"The extended use may be American in origin: In July he was ordered abroad, and their tenderness and desire reached a crescendo —F. Scott Fitzgerald, ..."

7. German Orthography and Phonology: A Treatise with a Word-list by George Hempl (1897)
"crescendo, Decrescendo, and Equal Stress 275. If in a series of stresses each succeeding stress is weaker than the one preceding, the word or sentence in ..."

8. The American History and Encyclopedia of Music by Janet M. Green, Josephine Thrall (1908)
"Another name for swell pedal, crescendo poco a poco ... The crescendo pedal: a pedal by means of which the stops of an organ may be drawn out successively, ..."

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