Quasi a tempo

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff after a rit. or a broad passage, where the music returns almost — but not quite — to the original tempo. It lasts until the next tempo word, which is often the full return (Wie zu Anfang, Tempo I) a few bars later.

How Composers Use It

Quasi a tempo is a graded return: the performer resumes motion but keeps a trace of the preceding slowing, often as a transition before a full a tempo. It suits late-Romantic music where tempo is continually flexible, as in Mahler and early Berg. Use it to avoid a jolt when a ritardando should not snap back, then mark the full return clearly so the performer knows the approximation has ended.

Example

Berg, Sieben frühe Lieder, “Nacht”, voice, m. 25: “quasi a tempo”, between “Ganz breit” in the bar before and “Wie zu Anfang” in the bar after.

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