Preciso

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff or over a part, alone or with an intensifier (“molto preciso”), to ask for exactness in a passage that might otherwise be played freely. It applies to the passage it heads, until a direction such as rubato or a new character word relieves it.

How Composers Use It

Preciso asks for exactness of rhythm, ensemble and articulation, and is most useful where performers would otherwise take liberties: after a rubato passage, in a tricky rhythmic figure, or in 20th-century writing that wants mechanical evenness. It says how to play, not how fast, so pair it with a tempo word. Where only the beat must be strict, misurato or a tempo may be clearer.

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