crescendo

An instruction to play gradually more loudly, denoted by a long, narrow angle with its apex on the left ( < ), by musicians called a hairpin.

A gradual increase of anything, especially to a dramatic climax.

Their fighting rose in a fearsome crescendo.

The climax of a gradual increase.

Their arguing rose to a fearsome crescendo.

With the Stoke supporters jeering Ziv's every subsequent touch, the pantomime atmosphere created by the home crowd reached a crescendo when Ziv was shown a straight red shortly after the break in extraordinary circumstances.

To increase in intensity; to reach or head for a crescendo.

The band crescendoed and then suddenly went silent.

And similarly, they are full of tricks: when the imagined stranger calls your name, the music crescendos romantically; when the video freezes on your laugh, it immediately desaturates the candid photo, making you look old-timey or famous or dead.

Gradually increasing in force or loudness.