DE äußerst zart character advanced Support my free tools
How is äußerst zart played?
The performer refines the touch to its utmost, producing the most hushed and fragile tenderness the instrument allows. The intensifier äußerst ('extremely') pushes the character marking zart ('tender, delicate') to its limit, signalling that an ordinary zart would not be gentle enough. It is a directive about the extreme degree of delicacy in the manner of playing, typically over very quiet dynamics. German and Austrian composers who annotated in their own language used äußerst as a superlative across many character and tempo words, of which zart is one.
How does äußerst zart sound?
The listener hears an extremely fragile, hushed, delicately tender sound at the edge of audibility.
In context
Äußerst zart combines the intensifier äußerst ('extremely') with zart ('tender, delicate'), both standard German glossary vocabulary. The construction belongs to the German-language tradition of qualifying character markings to an extreme degree; it describes a manner of playing rather than a single defining work.
Equivalent terms
- IT delicatissimo
- FR très délicat
- EN extremely delicate
- DA yderst sart