FR étouffez resonance common Support my free tools
How is étouffez played?
Actively end the vibration by the means appropriate to the instrument: a harpist places hands against the strings, a pianist releases the keys or sustain pedal carrying the sound, and a percussionist damps a cymbal, bar or other resonant body with the hand, mallet or mechanism. In the same local context it works opposite laissez vibrer: one stops the resonance and the other leaves it ringing. Composers use the command to clear lingering sound, shorten a chord or articulate the end of a sustained passage. On harp, the related adjective étouffé or plural étouffés can instead describe notes produced with a damped quality; that grammatical form is distinct from the imperative and from the separate phrase sons étouffés.
How does étouffez sound?
The sound stops short or is choked off, leaving a dry, quickly silenced attack instead of a ringing decay.
In context
Étouffez is the French command 'damp' or 'muffle', documented in music dictionaries and harp sources as an active stop to resonance rather than a request merely to play softly. Henriette Renié's harp score distinguishes the full command Étouffez le bas from passages labelled Sons étouffés, and no exact textual abbreviation for étouffez reached the evidence threshold.
Equivalent terms
- IT smorzare
- IT stoppare
- DE abdämpfen
- DE dämpfen
- EN dampen
- EN stop the resonance