DE abdämpfen resonance core term Support my free tools
How is abdämpfen played?
After the attack, stop the relevant vibration by the means appropriate to the instrument: touch a harp or other string, release the piano sustain mechanism when it is carrying the sound, damp a cymbal with the hand, or stop a vibraphone bar with pedal, hand or mallet. The local score determines which sound and when; the aim may be to clear lingering resonance, shorten a note or close a sustained passage. Abdämpfen belongs to the same functional damping family as French étouffez and Italian smorzare and contrasts with klingen lassen, but those neighboring terms are not automatically interchangeable. One specialist dictionary lists abd.; because three independent direct musical expansions were not found, this entry retains the full word.
How does abdämpfen sound?
The note is cut short or muffled, replacing a ringing decay with a dry, quickly silenced sound.
In context
German abdämpfen means to damp or dampen down; Mahler glossaries document the full instruction, while instrumental sources show that its physical endpoint depends on the sounding object and damping mechanism. It stops or shortens resonance rather than prescribing a particular dynamic or colour, and the isolated abd. candidate remains below the evidence threshold.
Equivalent terms
- FR étouffer
- EN damp
- EN stop the sound
- DA dæmp af
- DA stop lyden