Feroce: meaning and use in music

Feroce means 'ferocious', asking for savage, fierce, aggressive playing.

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How is feroce played?

The performer plays ferociously, with a savage, biting attack and aggressive intensity. Feroce shapes character rather than tempo, marking passages that should feel fierce, snarling or brutal. It calls for hard accents, edge and an almost predatory force, and appears especially in dramatic 19th- and 20th-century scores. The word demands wildness held just within the bounds of control.

How does feroce sound?

Savage and fierce, with biting, aggressive attack.

In context

Feroce is defined in standard glossaries as 'ferocious'. It is an extreme expressive character word used to intensify a passage rather than the property of a single landmark work.

Music theory and score context

See also

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