Repeated Notes

When we encounter repeated notes or repeated motives that have no dynamic marking , we need to make a decision as to how to play such passages.  Suggestions for interpreting them are:

1. Make a crescendo.  
2. Make a diminuendo. 
3. Make a crescendo and diminuendo. 
4. Make a diminuendo and a crescendo. 
5. Play all notes on the same dynamic. 

Your decision in deciding on one of these options depends upon what you intuit is musically sound for the given phrase.  Once you are convinced of what works best for the musical structure, you are then free to “take chances on firm ground,” as Artur Rubinstein once said.