(It.: ‘sweet’).
A word whose earliest musical uses were apparently indications of mood and performing style, not dynamics. Brossard (Dictionaire, 1703) defined dolce, along with dolcemente and con dolce maniera, in this manner; and the anonymous A Short Explication (London, 1724) followed his lead in its definition of con dolce maniera. But in 1768 Rousseau (Dictionnaire article ‘Doux’) said that dolce, doux and piano also meant simply ‘quiet’, though he added that some Italian purists considered that dolce could also mean più soave, corresponding more or less to the French louré. Probably all three words were used fairly loosely in the 17th and 18th centuries, though piano had already begun to develop its independent tradition in the 17th century. In the 19th century dolce was often used as an alternative indication to play quietly; and there is an old story among orchestral musicians that dolce means ‘play loudly’ because it specifically denotes phrases that must seem quiet but carry through the orchestral texture. The superlative form dolcissimo (current only in musical contexts) is also common and often abbreviated to dolciss. Examples of the use of dolce when it is clearly not a dynamic indication include the mf e dolce in Beethoven’s Quartet op.59 no.1 and f dolce opening the finale of Schumann’s Third Symphony.
For bibliography see Tempo and expression marks.
DAVID FALLOWS