Adagio ma non troppo

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the first system as a heading, or at a new slow section within a movement, and in force until the next tempo word. It may be extended with a second clause — Adagio ma non troppo, ma divoto — that tells the player what the restrained slowness is for.

How Composers Use It

Here non troppo works unambiguously: slow, but do not let the music stall. It is a safeguard for long-breathed slow movements whose phrases could fall apart at too broad a pace; Beethoven heads the finale of his Sonata Op. 110 with it, una corda, before the recitative and arioso. Pair it with a metronome mark if you have a precise speed in mind; otherwise players will take it as a flowing Adagio.

Example

Beethoven, Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, fourth movement, m. 627: “Adagio ma non troppo, ma divoto” heads the choral “Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?”.

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