More

As Printed on a Score

Printed before the quality it increases — more motion, more tone, more slowly — usually inside a longer English direction above the staff. It is a comparison with what came before, so a reader looks back to the last tempo or character word to measure it; it lasts until the next such word.

How Composers Use It

The English più, and just as relative: more motion only means something after a stated tempo. Use it to steer an episode or a gradual build without inventing a new tempo word, and plan the return (as before, Tempo I). With adjectives the comparative is crisper — faster, louder — so keep more for nouns and adverbs: more tone, more freely, more sustained.

Related Terms