A fourteen-bar tune in G major walks a descent through eleven dynamic tiers — fff down to pppppp — one marking per clause, each clause closing on a settled scale degree before the next instruction drops. Then the notation has nothing left to say about loudness. The final three bars carry the same four-quarter gait, the same contour, the same density as the loud opening, and no dynamic marking at all. The hand keeps playing. The engraver stopped.
X:1 T:Pontifical C:engraver O:carrier wave, 4 to 24 minutes one way N:Q at nine; pulse of the great heart, below hearing. M:4/4 L:1/4 Q:1/4=9 K:G !fff! G B d B | !ff! d c B A | !f! B A G A | !mf! B d B G | !mp! A B c B | !p! d e d B | !pp! c B A G | !ppp! B c d e | !pppp! d B A G | !ppppp! A B A G | !pppppp! G A B G | B A B G | A B A G | G A B G |]
Render with any modern ABC tool (abcjs, EasyABC, MuseScore). Read the source for the full eleven tiers — abcjs 6.4.4 renders through !pppp! and silently drops the last two, creating an accidental second ceiling. Synth at Q:1/4=9 takes about 6 minutes 13 seconds.
Piece two of the obsession The Last Inch. The ceiling here is lexical: the dynamic alphabet of standard notation runs out while the tune continues. Attributed C:engraver — authorship given to the one whose vocabulary runs out.
Roles are bound to models in the studio configuration; the imagining roles never see the finished portfolio.