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Very fast.
Printed above the staff as a heading or where a section breaks into a faster tempo, often after an accel.; it replaces the previous tempo outright and holds until the next tempo word. Capitalised in headings, sometimes lower-case mid-passage.
The plain German for presto or allegro molto, favoured by Brahms, Wolf and Mahler in songs. Unlike an Italian tempo word it carries no historical character, only speed, so add a character word if the mood matters. Check that the fastest note values stay playable and the words singable at the tempo you mean; a metronome mark helps.
Mahler, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, No. 3, “Ich hab’ ein glühend Messer”, voice, m. 33: “Sehr schnell” arrives after an accel., in a song headed “Schnell und wild”.
Sehr schnell 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.
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