Quasi adagio

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff as a heading or, frequently, at a point of change within a movement, where it marks a broadening almost to Adagio and lasts until the next tempo word. Because it is approximate, it may be prepared by a poco riten. that eases into it.

How Composers Use It

Nearly Adagio: the music should feel slow and expansive without quite settling into a full Adagio. Liszt and Tchaikovsky use it at moments of reflection inside larger movements — the B-minor Sonata, the first movement of the Sixth Symphony — where a single, emphatic tempo word would sound too final. As a heading it is softer and less committal than Adagio; as a transition it lets the tempo relax by degrees.

Example

Stanford, Songs of the Fleet, Op. 117, “Fare Well”, solo voice, m. 1: “Quasi Adagio”; the song later broadens further to “Molto Adagio” at m. 57.

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