Im Takt

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff after a free or recitative-like passage, alone or as “streng im Takt”; it restores strict time from that point on, the German counterpart of a tempo or a battuta.

How Composers Use It

Use it to end a passage of rubato, colla voce or senza tempo — Robert Franz writes “frei im Takt” and then “im Takt” a bar later. Streng im Takt also works as a warning against expressive distortion in a passage that might tempt it. It says nothing about speed: the tempo resumes as before.

Example

Wagner, Wesendonck-Lieder, “Im Treibhaus”, voice, m. 28: “(streng im Takt)”, in a song headed “Langsam und schwer”.

Related Terms