Can someone please explain the difference between these two? There is a m.v. in a Chopin piece I am currently working on, and I'm not exactly sure what to do with it. Maybe Chopin didn't even write in that indication, but I'd still like to know the difference.

Thank you.

Hi Monica,
From the Harvard Dictionary of Music:

Mezza. [It.] Half. Mezza voce: with "half-voice," i.e., with restrained volume of tone.

Sotto. [It.] Under. Sotto voce (under the voice) means performance, vocal or instrumental, "in an undertone," i.e. with subdued sound.

Sounds pretty much the same to me.

Edit: BTW, in piano music:
M.d. sotto = right hand under
M.s. sotto = LH under
M.d. sopra = RH above
M.s. sopra = LH above

Hi Eddy,
Yes, I knew the two definitions, but wondered if there was more to it than that. But thanks for those four other definitions. I don't recall seeing any of them in my music. Forgive me if I sound dense (no, it's not the blonde - I'm just half-asleep now), but does for example, m.d. sotto mean the right hand needs to slide in under the left hand, or does it mean that the RH should just play softer (more subdued) than the LH? I'm thinking it must mean the physical part of placing one hand under or over the other one depending on the notation, because it's usually that the hand playing melody is played louder than the other hand, right? So why would we need a notation that says to play a certain hand louder than the other hand? I'm probably not making sense...good night...

I hope you weren't insulted by my providing definitions. The last four are about the physical positioning of the hands, not anything about voicing. Yep, I can tell you're sleepy.

Both indications are very rare in piano music. I have a sneaking suspicion that composers write such things when they've just learned a new Italian word and are keen to use it! I wouldn't read too much into it.

Personally I'd interpret mezza voce as being mp or maybe mf, and sotto voce as being pp. But I can't quote any authority for this, it's just my opinion.

I'm trying to remember exactly where Chopin used m.v. One of the mazurkas, opus thirty-something or fifty-something?

Wide awake now!

No, Eddy, I wasn't insulted. Just trying to wrap my brain around those definitions, and reading back I got it right.

@Alexander - thanks. I'll just play it softer. It's only one or two bars long. And I'm going to let the piece remain mystery so that someone doesn't hurry up and record the same piece and then proceed to tell me how badly I played in my rendition. It's a fairly popular Chopin piece, that's all I will say....

You have just said what I have been thinking all along but was too afraid to say so. You know, amateurs...

Chopin uses it, for example, over the treble clef on bar 77 of the Etude op 10/12.

Being a fluent speaker of Italian I must say I find most of the dog Italian to be found on scores to be baffling, when not just simply wrong, like the famous "menuetto" for "minuetto" and "leggiero" for "leggero"

I have just being recording a Gershwin prelude and there it is written "andante poco rubato" Now what does he mean, andante with little rubato or andante with a little rubato"?

I think it means "with" a little rubato. I don't think I have ever seen "no rubato".

True, Monica, but I make a distinction between "little" = not very much and "a little" = some. In Italian you make this difference.

The same indication, sotto voce, I have found in Chopin's Prelude op 28/6 and there I would agree with you: what does it mean, placed between the rh and lh and after a p? As Alexander says, it probably means Chopin was practising his Italian. How can a whole piece be in a whisper on all voices?

Ok, that narrows it down.

Hi Monica,

I agree with hanysz. Mezzo voce is reducing the dynamic by half, so if it had been mf, then next it has to be p. That reduction can be quantified. But sotto voce, meaning an undertone, takes on more of a qualitative aspect in my opinion. Instead of being just less volume, depending on the character of the piece, it might also be a voice that is one of mystery, intrigue, or foreboding, etc. I think that mezzo voce is subdued, but that sotto voce takes on a different coloration and meaning. Just my interpretation of it.

David

For me, mezza voce = mp or perhaps mf; sotto voce = whispering or in the background.

Thanks people!

I knew sotto voce, and most of times think that using the una chorda pedal in places marked sotto voce is a real good use of that pedal. Not that we're merely lowering the volume of said passages (except that we are), but changing the voice is more what we're after. I just wasn't sure about mezza voce, but okay I'll just go a little softer in those places.

I also actually do the same thing with this indications. Cause for me, that's the best way to play with the indication given. It's somehow the equivalent of the said indications.

Hello, Pianolady,

"Mezza voce" is explained in “How to read Music by Helen Cooper” as “In a half voice”.
"Sotto voce" is explained in “The ABC Guide to Music Theory by Eric Taylor” as “in an undertone",
literally translated from the Italian as “below the voice”.

If there is a difference, perhaps the "Sotto voce" is even “more quiet” than the "Mezza voce" which is very tender and very quiet already.

I mention this because it has been said that Chopin was greatly influenced by John Field, the “inventor” of the Nocturne for Piano, and student of Clementi,
and it is said of John Field that he played the Forte-Piano very, very gently with a very sensitive use of the pedal
and Liszt wrote of him that he “was dreaming his music” and he was a great inspiration to all the other composers, including Chopin.

My feeling of the difference, perhaps because of Field’s influence is, that "Sotto voce" is played very very lightly and more delicately and more dreamily than "Mezza voce".

This is the best explanation I can come up with and I do hope it helps in some way.

Kind regards from Kristinaolga.