Colla parte

As Printed on a Score

Printed in the accompanying parts — a piano part, or orchestral parts under a solo line — where the soloist takes liberties, often at a rit. or fermata. It holds until a tempo restores the common pulse, usually a bar or two later.

Also spelled: col parte

How Composers Use It

Colla parte tells accompanists to follow the soloist’s timing rather than keep their own. It is essential wherever the solo line breathes freely — a fermata, a rubato peak, a recitative-like phrase — and the accompaniment must move with it. Write it in the accompanying parts, not the solo part, and mark the return (a tempo) clearly. Colla voce and col canto are the vocal equivalents.

Example

Elgar, “The River”, Op. 60 No. 2, piano, m. 22: “colla parte” at f, the bar after a “rit.”

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