Eilen

As Printed on a Score

The infinitive is almost never printed alone as an instruction to hurry; it appears in warnings (nicht eilen, ohne zu eilen). A reader who meets it should look for the negation before or after it.

How Composers Use It

Knowing the verb helps decode the warnings built on it: nicht eilen and ohne zu eilen both forbid hurrying, the first as a command, the second inside a heading. When you actually want the music to press forward, drängend or eilig is clearer than an imperative eilen, and accelerando or stringendo remains the most widely understood.

Example

Mahler, Kindertotenlieder, No. 4, “Oft denk’ ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen”: the heading “Ruhig bewegt, ohne zu eilen” uses the verb only to forbid hurrying.

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