Rapide

FrenchTempoPrinted in scores

Fast.

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff or over a figure. As a heading it sets a fast tempo; inside a piece it can apply only to a passing run or flourish, with the surrounding tempo resuming at once — a following en mesure or a tempo makes the local scope clear.

How Composers Use It

Rapide is plain French for fast; as a heading it is close to vite. Ravel places it for a single bar between cédez and en mesure, where it can only qualify the figure in that bar. If you mean a whole section, a tempo word such as Vif or Vite is clearer; if you mean one figure, put rapide directly over it.

Example

Ravel, Pavane pour une infante défunte, piano, m. 34: “rapide”, between “Cédez” at m. 33 and “En mesure” at m. 35.

Rapide is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.

Browse the full dictionary →

Loading…