Loading…
Loading…
Little by little; the English counterpart of poco a poco.
Printed at the bar where a change begins — gradually slower, becoming gradually quicker, gradually louder — often followed by dashes or a dotted line to the bar where the change is complete. The new state is then confirmed by a tempo word or a dynamic, which also marks the end of the process.
The English poco a poco: it spreads a change over a whole passage instead of making it at once. Show where the process ends, either by naming a target (to ff, to Tempo I) or by drawing a line, otherwise players cannot pace it. It is the simplest way to turn any English adjective into a process, which makes it valuable when all your directions are in English.
Delius, Four Old English Lyrics, “To Daffodils”, voice, m. 23: “becoming gradually quicker” is printed together with “cresc. ed accel. poco a poco”, giving the same instruction in English and in Italian.
Gradually is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
Browse the full dictionary →