pianissimoadv.n.adj.

c1710 in G. Strahle Early Mus. Dict. (1995) 275/2 P.P. or Pianissimo—Very soft.

1724 Short Explic. Foreign Words Musick Bks. Pianissimo, or PPP, is extream Soft or Low.

1771 P. Parsons Newmarket I. 36 Suffer me with a voice (piano) of the gentlest humility, to beg your opinion—but for pity's sake (pianissimo) let it be compassionate.

1873 Ladies' Repository Oct. 313/1 Reciting passages of Scripture, kneeling fifteen minutes in silent prayer, singing pianissimo.

1910 E. M. Forster Howards End ix. 71 The course of the Oder is to be like music... There is a slodgy theme in several keys at once, meaning mud-banks, and another for the navigable canal, and the exit into the Baltic is in C sharp major, pianissimo.

1947 A. Einstein Music Romantic Era xvi. 283 Yet this festival opera ends pianissimo and con sordini.

1994 Toronto Life June 83/2 The feel and flavours of Little Italy of a generation back, among which the signature tune played pianissimo.

1781 Col. Ormsby I. xviii. 82 My orders were to begin with your larghettos full of your fortes pianos and pianissimos, intermixed with your occasional amorosos.

1883 A. K. Green Hand & Ring x The last note of the song was dying away in a quivering pianissimo.

1886 Athenæum 6 Feb. 209/1 Much was left to desire on the score of delicacy, a pianissimo being never obtained, and even a piano but seldom.

1928 Weekly Disp. 6 May 8/1 He imparts into every movement that vital Schubertian ‘atmosphere’ without which the composition becomes nothing but smashing chords, furious fortissimos and fading pianissimos.

1992 Classic CD May 65/4 Pogorelich can thunder with the best of them and his pianissimos can be quite breathtaking feathery whispers.

2004 Chicago Sun-Times (Nexis) 11 July 4 In a quiet concert hall, you have the ability to play a pianissimo in a way that's so delicate that it is just barely heard.

1876 S. Lanier in Atlantic Monthly (1899) 83 799/1 I..inserted a whisper chorus..to prepare by its straining pianissimo for the outburst of jubilation.

1901 Scotsman 8 Mar. 7/1 All gradations of tone from loudest forte to tenderest pianissimo.

1913 N.E.D. at Touch sb. He has a remarkably delicate touch, and excels in pianissimo.

1991 Descant Summer 155 How long can we sustain the darkness and silence with only the sounds of the elements occasionally heard in pianissimo?

1838 Biblical Repertory July 349 His mezzo and pianissimo expressions are as soft as from the voice of a woman.

1858 ‘G. Eliot’ Amos Barton i, in Scenes Clerical Life I. 21 A hen, when advertising her accouchement, passes at irregular intervals from pianissimo semiquavers to fortissimo crotchets.

1906 Macmillan's Mag. Sept. 859 The baby is a bully; he soon finds out how surely his song of appealing force..strikes at the hearts of the gracious beings about him, and there are few pianissimo passages with him.

1959 D. Buckingham Wind Tunnel xv. 127 Janet was certainly pianissimo—in spite of her get-up. She had something on her mind.

1988 Early Music 16 505 The image of the waves dying down is rendered by the pianissimo ending.

2004 Sacramento Bee (Nexis) 26 Apr. e1 A bit of messy playing in the violins at the start of the piece showed how Jackson Hall offers no place to hide in pianissimo passages.