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I have spent a year and a half researching the notational enigma of hairpins in late classical and romantic music, and now I am at a bend in the road.

The esteemed Czerny claims that opening and closing hairpins (< and >) mean crescendo and diminuendo (growing and diminishing in volume). Following this, there are innumerable notational redundancies in most classical music. Cresc. abbreviations followed by opening hairpins. Instances such as the m. 165-167 in Schubert's Impromptu in E-flat major D. 899, No.2. Diminuendo hairpin followed by a dimin. abbreviation followed by a decresc. abbreviation.

I am not convinced that < > always means crescendo and diminuendo.

  • Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel claims that < and > means accelerando and ritardando (accelerating and retarding in tempo) in her Allegro ma non troppo in F minor, “This piece must be performed with many changes in tempo, but always gently, without jerking. The < > sign stands for accelerando and ritardando.” (Hensel, 51). From Klavierstück, Allegro ma non Troppo in F minor H167 (1826).
  • Liszt went even so far as to notate crescendo and diminuendo through thick, thin, and double lines in his Au Bord d'une Source.
  • Manuel Garcia Jr., son of the famed opera singer and pedagogue Manuel Garcia claims that < means crescendo and > means diminuendo, but if they are not aligned perfectly they have different agogic meanings. This is from his Ecole de Garcia.
  • To Brahms, the hairpins applied to tempo as well as volume. -From Cobbett’s Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music.
  • A famous musician claimed that hairpins are a case of wheels within wheels. Something so complex and complicated. From Seymour Bernstein's Interpreting Chopin's Notation Symbols. Heidsieck claims that < > are called bellows (soufflet) by French musicians again from Seymour Bernstein's Interpreting Chopin's Notation Symbols.

I am so confounded and confused that I am looking to this forum for answers. Bernstein's Interpreting Chopin's Notation Symbols and Poli's The Secret Life of Notational Symbols are great guides, but what is and what isn't? I agree with Garcia and Brahms; they refer to volume and subtle tempo changes in different contexts.

Elements In Space
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Benjamin Rivas
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    It's true that hairpins mean different things to different composers and depend on context. Perhaps you could clarify what sort of information you're looking for here. – Aaron Apr 26 '23 at 14:24
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    Note that hairpins can define the timespan by their extent, which cresc. is unable to (at least as long no line break comes along). I have lost track how often I added hairpins manually on conductors request to reflect this. – guidot Apr 26 '23 at 14:29
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    Welcome! This is an intriguing topic (could make a good dissertation maybe?), but I'm not sure what the central question is. (Check out this help page: Stack Exchange isn't just a discussion forum, but oriented toward concrete answers to concrete questions.) If the question is "but seriously, what did hairpins mean," I think you've proven the answer is "not always the same thing to everybody." Maybe the question is what was most common? I suspect the answer is cresc/decresc, but you've researched this more than I have! – Andy Bonner Apr 26 '23 at 14:38
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    (I'm reminded of the "marcato wedge," which I always have to remind students had a whole lot of different meanings especially in the classical period, from implying added weight to reduced weight, sometimes shorter than staccato dot and sometimes longer.) – Andy Bonner Apr 26 '23 at 14:39
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    See also the discussion in Andrew Snedden; Vital Performance pp. 109-110 (2021) – DjinTonic Apr 26 '23 at 16:58
  • DjinTonic, thank you for referring me to this invaluable source. This is exactly my intention for this question. I need as many sources as possible and I need as much guidance as I can get. – Benjamin Rivas Apr 26 '23 at 17:38
  • Andy, thank you for clearing up the purpose of Stack Exchange. I really appreciate your guidance as this is new for me. – Benjamin Rivas Apr 26 '23 at 17:41
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    Related: Did Chopin use hairpins (adjacent crescendo and decrescendo) to indicate rubato rather than dynamics? – Elements In Space Apr 26 '23 at 21:05

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