Loading…
Loading…
Slow down little by little.
Printed where the slowing begins, often followed by dashes or a dotted line to the point of arrival, where a new tempo word, a pause or a tempo marks the end. The slowing does not cancel itself; a reader needs a tempo or a new heading to know the pulse has been restored.
Plain-English ritardando or rallentando, for easing into a cadence or a new section; for a sudden held-back moment, write held back instead. Show where the slowing stops and what follows. If the notation already broadens the rhythm with longer note values, adding a slowing on top doubles the effect.
Gradually slower 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 →