What do the symbols in piano sheet music mean?

I printed sheet music for a song, and theres a few symbols i don't understand. There is a ';less than'; symbol under some notes, a cursive F at the start of the song, and at the end of the staffs theres a trebble clef? And some of the trebble clefs have a small 8 above it. The song is Requiem for a Dream. Please help thanks!!What do the symbols in piano sheet music mean?
By ';less than symbol';, could you mean a crescendo or diminuendo?


a crescendo means gradually increase volume, and diminuendo is the opposite, gradually decrease volume.





The cursive F means ';forte'; which means loud, which means play the part above it loud and strong.





Here, use this, it'll explain all the symbols you'll probably come across:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_musi鈥?/a>What do the symbols in piano sheet music mean?
is the ';less than'; symbol underneath single notes, or stretched out throughout the piece?





If they are positioned directly underneath individual notes, they may be accents, meaning you slightly stress the notes. If they're stretched out over multiple notes, it would be a crescendo or descrescendo, meaning the sound either grows or decreases in the direction of the opening.





The cursive f stands for ';forte' in Italian, meaning loud.





The treble clef at the end probably means you're changing from the bass clef to the treble clef, and when if there's an 8 above the clef, you play an octave higher than written, and if it's below, you play an octave below what's written.





Hope that helps =]
The really long less than symbol is crescendo, meaning start soft and become loud. The cursive f is Forte, for loud. The treble clef at the end of the staff means its switching to treble clef from bass clef.
The first three respondents got everything but the treble clef with an eight over it. That means play an octave higher.


Is this an arrangement for soprano recorder?


The soprano recorder sounds an octave higher than written?
The less than sign means crescendo, which means starts out soft and gradually get louder

mac rvd