ve.

In vocal music the accent and crescendo marks provided by the composer
are often intended merely to indicate the proper pronunciation of some
part of the text. Often, too, they assist in the declamation of the
text by indicating the climax of the phrase, _i.e._, the point of
greatest emphasis.

The dynamic directions provided by the composer are intended to
indicate only the broader and more obvious effects, and it will be
necessary for the performer to introduce many changes not indicated in
the score. Professor Edward Dickinson, in referring to this matter in
connection with piano playing, remarks:[19]

After all, it is only the broader, more general scheme of
light and shade that is furnished by the composer; the finer
gradations, those subtle and immeasurable modifications of
dynamic value which make a composition a palpitating,
coruscating thing of beauty, are wholly under the player's
will.

[Footnote 19: Dickinson, _The Education of a Music Lover_, p. 123.]

In concluding our discussion of dynamics, let us emphasize again the
fact that all expression signs are relative, never absolute, and that
_piano_, _crescendo_, _sforzando_, _et cetera_, are not intended to
convey to the performer any definite degree of power. 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
a blast of dynamite, whether occurring in the midst of a vigorous,
spirited movement, or in a tender lullaby. Berlioz, in the treatise on
conducting appended to his monumental work on Orchestration, says:[20]

A conductor often demands from his players an exaggeration
of the dynamic nuances, either in this way to give proof of
his ardor, or because he lacks fineness of musical
perception. Simple shadings then become thick blurs, accents
become passionate shrieks. The effects intended by the poor
composer are quite distorted and coarsened, and the attempts
of the conductor to be artistic, however honest they may be,
remind us of the tenderness of the ass in the fable, who
knocked his master down in trying to caress him.

[Footnote 20: Berlioz, _A Treatise on Modern