crescendo
Gradual volume increase
Crescendo is a gradual increase in loudness or intensity.
In music, it marks a passage where volume builds progressively: The orchestra swelled to a magnificent crescendo.
The term extends to any mounting intensity: The protests reached a crescendo before the vote.
Often misused to mean climax or peak, but strictly it refers to the building process, not the arrival.
Increase in degree
- escalationProgressive increase in intensity
- surgeSudden powerful increase
- swellIncrease in size
- mountingSteadily increasing in degree
gathering · momentum · amplification · snowballing · accumulation · heightening · progression · expansion
Highest or final point
- pinnacleUtmost summit or spire
- apexUppermost point or culmination
- zenithPoint straight overhead
- peakUtmost height attained
highpoint · summit · acme · capstone · apotheosis · crowning moment · finale · showstopper
Gradual tempo increase
- rallentandoGradual tempo reduction
- ritardandoGradual tempo decrease
- fermataSustained note symbol
- attaccaMusical "don't stop" direction
Very loud, musically
- forteArea of expertise
- diminuendoGradual decrease in loudness
- pianissimoExtremely quiet, in scores
- accentRegional speech pattern
intensification
Increase in degree
- escalationProgressive increase in intensity
- surgeSudden powerful increase
- swellIncrease in size
mounting · gathering · momentum · amplification · snowballing · accumulation · heightening · progression · expansion · augmentation
culmination
Highest or final point
peak · highpoint · summit · acme · capstone · apotheosis · crowning moment · finale · showstopper · turning point
accelerando
Gradual tempo increase
- rallentandoGradual tempo reduction
- ritardandoGradual tempo decrease
- fermataSustained note symbol
fortissimo
Very loud, musically
- forteArea of expertise
- diminuendoGradual decrease in loudness
- pianissimoExtremely quiet, in scores
symphony
Extended composition for orchestra
- orchestraLarge instrumental ensemble
- conductorOne who directs musicians
- maestroDistinguished musical leader
strings · brass · timpani · tutti · full orchestra · orchestration · movement · passage · phrase · finale
- choral musicchoral music, choral works, choral arrangements, choral arrangement, choir arrangements
- Qawwalitabla, harmonium, daf, handclaps, clapping
- sheet music termsnotation, full score, dynamics, key signature, time signature
- musicmusic, song, songs, singing, singer
- classical musicBach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms
- build upaccumulate, amass, pile up, snowball, escalate
crescendodecrescendo
Gradual decrease in loudness
diminuendo · dying away · fading out · softening · morendo
crescendodiminuendo
Gradual decrease in loudness
decline · dying down · diminution · decrease · waning
crescendodenouement
Story's final unraveling
falling action · anticlimax · resolution · conclusion · comedown
excrescence, crescendoed, crescendoing, crescendoes, crescendos, decrescendo, decrescendos