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Speeding up a great deal.
Printed above the staff as molto accel. (occasionally accel. molto), often with dashes; it runs until a new tempo word — frequently a much faster one — or a tempo.
Abbreviations: molto accel., accel. molto
A strong, gradual acceleration that carries the music into a markedly faster section or a climax. Because it changes the speed a great deal, it needs a destination: name the arrival tempo, or performers have to guess how far to go and an ensemble can come apart. Combine it with a crescendo if the energy should grow with the speed.
Mahler, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, “Ich hab’ ein glühend Messer”, voice, m. 60: “molto accel.”, at f, arriving two bars later at “Sehr schnell”.
Molto accelerando 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.
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