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In fugue: entries of the subject overlapping before the previous entry is complete, creating increased intensity. In general: a passage of accelerating tension toward a climax.
Printed above the staff as a tempo direction — stretto, poco stretto, cresc. e stretto, stretto più mosso — asking for a quickening that presses toward a climax over a few bars, until a riten., a tempo or a new tempo word. In fugue analysis the same word names overlapping subject entries, which are usually not labelled in the score at all.
Stretto is the fugue's ultimate intensification device — voices pile on top of each other. Plan stretto possibilities when designing your subject: test whether it can overlap with itself at various time intervals. Save stretto for the climactic final section of the fugue.
Bach's Fugue in C-sharp minor, WTC Book I (5 voices) — the final stretto combines all five voices in overlapping entries, one of the most impressive moments in all of Bach.
Stretto is one of 1760 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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