Drängend

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff where the music presses forward, often with a crescendo; it continues until a new tempo word or until the arrival it drives toward. In a heading (Sehr lebhaft und drängend) it describes a continuous forward pressure instead.

Also spelled: draengend

How Composers Use It

The German stringendo, with a sense of urgency and drive. Mahler uses it to accelerate a movement toward its close; Wolf in songs that boil over. Mark its goal clearly — a new tempo, a climax, a fermata — so the push has somewhere to go.

Example

Mahler, Symphony No. 5, third movement (Scherzo), m. 779: “Drängend.”, twenty bars before “Noch rascher.”

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