Poco a poco animato

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff where the gradual animation begins, sometimes followed by dashes and often combined with a crescendo (poco a poco animato e crescendo); it runs until a new tempo word or a tempo marks the arrival.

How Composers Use It

A gradual build in energy and pace, little by little, so the listener feels momentum gather rather than a switch. Debussy and Liszt use it to grow a passage toward a climax; pairing it with a crescendo makes the two kinds of growth coincide. Give it enough bars to be gradual, and mark where it peaks or settles, or performers will animate too early and have nowhere left to go.

Example

Debussy, Ariettes oubliées, “C’est l’extase langoureuse”, voice, m. 22: “poco a poco animato”, in a song headed “Lent et caressant” that later prints “poco a poco animato e crescendo” at m. 40.

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