@Angelo Clematide said:
Indicating fff for a clarinet is not practise, respectively a nonsense.
Brass can be indicated fff, and the maximum indication for wooddwinds is ff. So if you want to have brass and woodwind in equal loudness, then the brass has to cut back one dynamic level to ff, or even less, but that would be relative dynamics.
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Hi Angelo,
what you say, is ok as far as you just look at the reached dynamic (even much more with the piccolo flute, clarinets belong to the instruments with the largest dynamic scale; BUT there is another aspect that one should not forget when writting dynamics:
if you write e.g. fff instead of f for a piccolo, the dynamic wont change that much, maybe about 3 dB; but the articulation and so the sound will often change more or less drastically; it's even a fact that musicians are used to change their intonation (not drastically but with values up to 15 cent) to reach more subjective loudness.
You can often hear such things in situations, where e.g. a solo violin is playing "against" a big orchestra.
What i dont want to doubt is the fact, that this "tricks" don't really influence the way someone should score. it makes no sense to overrule the physical findings, which are generally discussed in orchestration, specially if you are using a broad orchestration.
But it is absolutely ok to write e.g. ffff for _all_ instruments in a tutti.
In those cases it is a known challenge for a conductor to get the right balance.
I know that lots of discussions have taken place in history about this problem, and therefore - also because of my own experiences - i think its ok to write "felt" dynamics.
When i tried to write "physically right" dynamics, the players generally were more confused and did not understand the intention.
(for example when you write f for a piccolo instead of mp, which would be the "emotional" value, knowing the sound the player will provide anyhow a f, he will in fact try to play in a harsher way as he would with a "felt" dynamic.
Anyhow, i dont see my statement in contrast to yours, but in addition to it.
Sometimes, it may even help to write more attributes that can help the player to find the right sound.
That all doesn't change the fact that you wont hear clarinets in the midrange - even when writing fffff - if the brass section is playing loud. [[;)]]
Best:
HTF