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Little, not much. On its own it restricts (“cédez très peu”, yield only very slightly); it also forms “un peu” (a little) and “peu à peu” (little by little).
Seldom printed alone: it turns up inside a phrase — in un peu (a little), in peu à peu (little by little), or qualifying a word directly, where it holds the change down, as in cédez très peu (yield only very slightly). It lasts exactly as long as the word it qualifies.
Peu and un peu pull in opposite directions, and a reader skimming a French score must not merge them: un peu adds a little of something, while peu (and très peu) allows only a little and stresses the restraint. That makes peu useful when you want a gesture barely there — a hesitation rather than a ritardando. Write un peu when you want the effect, peu when you want to warn against overdoing it.
Ravel, Miroirs No. 4, “Alborada del gracioso”, piano, m. 200: “cédez très peu”, printed beside “expressif” in a piece headed “Assez vif.”
Peu 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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