Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adv. Suddenly or strongly accented. Used chiefly as a direction.
- n. A sforzando tone or chord.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- In music, forced or pressed; with sudden, decided energy or emphasis: especially applied to a single tone or chord which is to be made particularly prominent. Abbreviated sf. and sfz., or marked ⟩, ∧.
Wiktionary
- n. music A tempo mark directing that a passage is to be played with a strong initial attack
- n. music A passage having this mark
- adv. music played in this style
- adj. music describing a passage having this mark
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. (Mus.) Forcing or forced; -- a direction placed over a note, to signify that it must be executed with peculiar emphasis and force; -- marked
fz (an abbreviation offorzando ),sf ,sfz , or �.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an accented chord
- n. (music) a notation written above a note and indicating that it is to be played with a strong initial attack
Etymologies
- Italian (Wiktionary)
- Italian, gerund of sforzare, to use force : s-, intensive pref. (from Latin ex-; see ex-) + forzare, to force (from Vulgar Latin *fortiāre, from Latin fortis, strong; see fortis). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It must have been true also of works such as the often passed - over Second Symphony, whose jagged first movement about seven minutes of music, not counting the repeat of the exposition contains the indications forte, fortissimo, sforzando (reinforced, strongly accented), forte - piano, or sforzando - piano at more than 260 points, and the instruction "crescendo" at 17 points.”
“Anna Zubrzycki, the company's co-founder, lends Lady Macbeth a steely determination, but relies overmuch on sforzando by which odd phrases are intemperately bellowed.”
“The coupler being brought on and off by a pedal, sforzando effects could be produced, or the first beat in cadi measure strongly accented in the style of the orchestration of the great masters.”
The Recent Revolution in Organ Building Being an Account of Modern Developments
“Hope-Jones has also recently invented a means of controlling the swell shutters from the manual keys to a sufficient extent to produce certain sforzando effects.”
The Recent Revolution in Organ Building Being an Account of Modern Developments
“The difference between _sforzando_, _rinforzando_, and”
“It is because of misunderstanding with regard to this point that dynamic effects are so frequently overdone by amateurs, both conductors and performers seeming to imagine that every time the word _crescendo_ occurs the performers are to bow or blow or sing at the very top of their power; and that _sforzando_ means a violent accent approaching the effect of”
“In each wind instrument I have defined the scope of greatest expression, that is to say the range in which the instrument is best qualified to achieve the various grades of tone, (forte, piano, cresc., dim., sforzando, morendo, etc.) — the register which admits of the most expressive playing, in the truest sense of the word.”
“Page 187 capacity for provocative utterance; he knows how to get a touch of bellicosity into the most banal of doctrines; he is forever on tiptoe, forever challenging, forever sforzando”
“The rapid figure in the second measure is for solo violin, heard softly against the sustained interval of the diminished ninth, but the final G natural is snapped out by the whole orchestra _sforzando_.”
“The energy, superhuman energy, of the thing is amazing: the storm throbs in the forest: one feels the pulse of the storm-god; the sforzando shocks and shrieks add to the terrific wildness of the scene.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sforzando’.
-
Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
-
#faveword
Words chosen as favorites for the Twitter hashtag #faveword.
autumnal, grotto, chiaroscuro, sfumato, homunculus, zing, zest, effervescent, bewitch, avuncular, susurrus, Styrofoam and 205 more...
-
Wordplayer's Wonderful Words
chaparral, grotesque, knork, newsmonger, thitherwards, fackeltanz, kakistocracy, sforzando, compendium, frump, inquere, phosphene and 100 more...
-
harmony of the spheres
tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, subtonic, leading tone, progression, sonata, concerto, allegro and 247 more...
-
Music
-
Umbersorrow
Intangible, anthropic.
States of being are listed on oofy.njiju, glark, deplore, afterlithe, tagmass, spuriosity, forkful, chelation, oding, ploat, botnet, quedeship and 477 more...
-
Interesting Scrabble words
Interesting words worth @ least 15 points.
smoochy, zareba, hyphal, djellaba, cloque, pyxidium, qindarka, squiffy, howbeit, chthonic, quinta, azimuthal and 262 more...
-
fbharjo's Words
jumelle, kef, kenspeckle, lautitious, essentic, pilpulistic, impavid, cicurant, clou, chrysostomic, miasma, teleology and 1625 more...
-
Beautiful Music
a cappella, accelerando, accompagnato, adagio, ad libitum, agitato, aleatory, alla breve, allegro, allemande, alto, andante and 548 more...
-
Words that make you go hmmmm...
Interesting words you probably won't hear in your day-to-day.
maxwell, mooncalf, quagga, glaikit, musquash, lingam, haruspex, qindarka, chthonic, ipomoea, azimuthal, valuta and 304 more...
-
MacBean's Words
verisimilitude, antediluvian, schadenfreude, eviscerate, exsanguinate, onomatopoeia, aesthetic, apocryphal, aubergine, byronic, brouhaha, bordello and 523 more...
-
clef
caprice, variation, violin, harpsichord, adagio, allegro, scherzo, opera, tenor, soprano, alto, mezzo and 62 more...
-
vespertine's Words
chiaroscuro, quixotic, twilight, defenestrate, oxymoron, vespertine, lachrymose, innuendo, onomatopoeia, syzygy, cadenza, doppelganger and 84 more...
-
Lys Loves
Words Lys loves.
aspersorium, fisticuffs, brouhaha, quagmire, trollop, flummox, facetious, balderdash, segue, bivouac, forsooth, ennui and 52 more...
-
Musical Terms
Various terms, common and uncommon, relating to musical scores.
largo, andante, adagio, lento, moderato, allegro, vivace, presto, fermata, appoggiatura, acciaccatura, trill and 56 more...
-
nietzsche/mencken
ressentiment, mountebankery, philippic, apostasy, plutocrat, heraclitus, mauled, bugaboo, von hindenburg, von bernstorff, von tirpitz, pronunciamentoes and 29 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for sforzando.

Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.