Ben tranquillo

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff at the start of a calm passage, sometimes inside a tempo phrase (a tempo ma ben tranquillo); it lasts until a new character or tempo word.

How Composers Use It

Ben tranquillo intensifies calm: steady pulse, even tone, nothing pushed. In a fast movement it can mark a quiet episode without a change of tempo — the music becomes calm within the beat — so add a tempo word if you also want it slower.

Example

Beach, Symphony in E minor (“Gaelic”), Op. 32, fourth movement (Allegro di molto), violin 1, m. 393: “ben tranquillo”, also in the violas, cellos and basses, as the first clarinet enters with a p solo marked “con molto espressione”.

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