Molto allargando

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff as molto allarg. or in full, at a climactic phrase; a tempo or a new tempo word, often a bar or two later, cancels it.

Abbreviations: molto allarg.

How Composers Use It

Allargando broadens both tempo and sound; molto makes the broadening grand and unmistakable, as if the music plants its feet. It belongs at the peak of a phrase or a final cadence, typically at forte or louder, where weight matters more than momentum. If the broadening should not slow the music much, write poco allargando or largamente instead.

Example

Chaminade, “L’Idéal”, voice, m. 29: “molto allarg.”, at ff, with “a tempo” in the next bar.

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