Animez

As Printed on a Score

An imperative printed above the staff where the quickening begins (Animez, animez un peu, animez peu à peu), sometimes followed by dashes. It starts a process: the tempo keeps rising until a new tempo word (au Mouvt, a tempo, Tempo I, cédez) stops it.

How Composers Use It

The French counterpart of animando or accelerando, with the extra sense of bringing the music to life rather than merely speeding up. Of the three forms, animez is the instruction to start pushing, en animant describes the push as it continues, and animé is the faster state itself. Say how much (un peu, peu à peu) and where it stops, or a singer and pianist may push by different amounts.

Example

Bizet, Feuilles d’album, “À une fleur”, voice and piano, m. 38: “Animez”, the bar after “a tempo”, in a song headed “Andantino”.

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