Meno vivo

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff at the start of the calmer passage, holding until a tempo or the next tempo word. Like meno mosso it is relative: the reader measures it against the tempo in force just before.

How Composers Use It

Choose it over meno mosso when the music you are leaving was marked vivo or vivace and you want to keep its character in view — less lively, not newly slow. Scriabin uses it repeatedly in his Fifth Sonata to let the music relax for a few bars before the tempo returns. Pair it with a character word (dolce, accarezzevole) to say how the calm should feel.

Example

Scriabin, Piano Sonata No. 5, Op. 53, m. 120: “Meno vivo” with “accarezzevole” (caressing) in the same bar, after a “rit.” in m. 119; “a tempo” returns at m. 122.

Related Terms