A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Perdendosi

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A Dictionary of Music and Musicians
edited by George Grove

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From volume 2 of the work.

1996164A Dictionary of Music and Musicians — PerdendosiGeorge GroveJ. A. Fuller-Maitland

PERDENDOSI, PERDENDO LE FORZE, 'losing strength.' A direction like 'morendo,' nearly always used at the end of a movement or section of a movement. It denotes a gradual diminuendo, and in the later modern masters, a slight rallentando as well. Beethoven uses 'perdendo le forze, dolente' in the third movement of the Pianoforte Sonata op. 110, where the slow time of the movement (Adagio ma non troppo) is resumed after the interruption by the fugue. It is used as an Italian version of 'Ermattet, klagend,' which is written above it. He also employs 'sempre perdendo' in the slow movement of the Symphony in B♭ (No. 4), in bars 12 to 10 from the end. 'Perdendosi' is used by Weber frequently, for instance in the slow movement of the pianoforte sonata in C, op. 24, etc., and by Chopin in the second of the two Polonaises op. 40, just before the return to the first subject.

[ J. A. F. M. ]