Largamente

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff where the broadening begins, alone or in a phrase — poco largamente, largamente e cantabile, largamente, forte possibile. It lasts until a new tempo word or an a tempo; an allarg. or rit. may follow as the passage widens further toward a cadence.

How Composers Use It

Largamente asks for breadth of tone and phrasing more than a new tempo: notes held their full value, a little more time at the peaks, a singing sostenuto. That makes it the natural marking for a big tune arriving or returning — a finale’s second theme, a song’s climax. It is not allargando, which describes a progressive slowing; write allargando when you want the pace to widen bar by bar.

Example

Brahms, Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73, fourth movement, violin 1, m. 78: “largamente”, printed with “arco” as the violins and violas leave the pizzicato they began four bars earlier; it recurs at m. 281.

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