Literary notes about Crescendo (AI summary)
The word "crescendo" is deployed not only to depict a rising musical sound but also to evoke an intensification of emotion and dramatic action in literature. Writers use the term to mirror the gradual build-up of tension, whether describing a musical passage that swells in volume—as when a voice "broke out in a shrill crescendo" [1] or a performance "worked up in a crescendo of great power" [2]—or to illustrate the mounting force of events, such as a narrative reaching "a crescendo of woe" [3] or the turbulence of a natural disaster cascading "in an avalanche: and its appalling crescendo was coming straight down the hill" [4]. Such usage enriches the text by linking auditory imagery to the surge of feelings or actions, effectively conveying the dynamic process of rising intensity.
- "The piano was touched, and the voice of Irma di Karski broke out in a shrill crescendo.
— from Vittoria — Volume 7 by George Meredith - Opening with a barytone solo, it is gradually worked up in a crescendo of great power and thrilling effect.
— from The Standard Operas (12th edition) Their Plots, Their Music, and Their Composers by George P. (George Putnam) Upton - And to top the crescendo of woe, the vacillating man runs in.
— from Iconoclasts: A Book of Dramatists Ibsen, Strindberg, Becque, Hauptmann, Sudermann, Hervieu, Gorky, Duse and D'Annunzio, Maeterlinck and Bernard Shaw by James Huneker - It was an avalanche: and its appalling crescendo was coming straight down the hill on which they stood.
— from The Great Amulet by Maud Diver
