Ritenente

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff, or between the staves in piano music, where the holding back begins, often as poco ritenente; an a tempo usually follows within a bar or two. It is especially associated with Beethoven’s late works.

How Composers Use It

A present participle — “holding back” — so it describes a process rather than the sudden, settled slowing of ritenuto: in effect a brief, expressive ritardando. Beethoven uses it in his late sonatas and the Ninth Symphony for small hesitations inside a phrase, nearly always followed at once by a tempo. If you borrow it, mark the return just as precisely; otherwise poco rit. will be understood more readily.

Example

Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110, first movement, m. 78: “ritenente”, followed in the next bar by “a tempo” and a p espressivo.

Related Terms