Plus vite

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff at the bar where the faster tempo begins, usually as a sudden change rather than an acceleration. It lasts until the next tempo word. Graded forms include un peu plus vite; for a gradual increase French scores use pressez or en animant instead.

How Composers Use It

The French più mosso, measured against the tempo before it. Use it for a new, steady faster tempo — a contrasting phrase, a sudden urgency in the text — and pressez or en animant when you want the music to gather speed. In one Clairières dans le ciel song Lili Boulanger steps up from plus vite to a bare vite, a clear way to show growing agitation.

Example

Lili Boulanger, Clairières dans le ciel, “Si tout ceci n’est qu’un pauvre rêve”, voice, m. 19: “Plus vite”, in a song headed “Assez lent”; a bare “Vite” follows at m. 29.

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