Nicht zu

As Printed on a Score

Fuses with the word it limits — Nicht zu schnell, nicht zu langsam, nicht zu sehr — usually in a song or movement heading, where it lasts until the next tempo word. Inside a running direction it often appears in parentheses as an afterthought, capping a change that has just been asked for.

How Composers Use It

The German ma non troppo: it keeps a word’s character while capping its degree. Schubert and Schumann head songs with it because a singer’s natural tendency is to take a fast tempo too fast or a slow one too slow. It also tempers a tempo change (etwas zurückhaltend, aber nicht zu sehr). Pair it with a word that names a quantity; on a pure character word it turns vague.

Example

Mahler, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, No. 3, “Ich hab’ ein glühend Messer”, piano, m. 14: “etwas zurückhaltend (aber nicht zu sehr.)” — the parenthesis caps the holding back in a song headed “Schnell und wild”.

Related Terms