Diminuendo e ritardando

As Printed on a Score

Printed below the staff in many forms — dim. e rit., rit. e dim., dim. rit., dim. e rall. — usually with dashes over its span. The tempo returns at a tempo or a new tempo word, the level at the next dynamic; often both are restored together.

Abbreviations: dim. e rit., rit. e dim., rit. dim., dim. rit., dim. e rall., rall. e dim.

How Composers Use It

The commonest way to close a phrase or section: the music slows and softens into a cadence. Because players do this by instinct, write it where the effect is structural — before a return, at a final cadence — and say how far it goes (a tempo, p). Single words carry a similar pair: calando, morendo and smorzando each combine fading with slowing in their own proportions.

Example

Schumann, Toccata in C major, Op. 7, m. 197: “diminuendo e ritardando” written out in full, answered four bars later by “a tempo” at p.

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