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Pressing forward, tightening the tempo. Implies urgency as well as speed.
Stringendo (from "stringere," to tighten) implies not just acceleration but increasing tension and urgency. Use it in passages where the music should feel like it is being compressed — driving toward a climax with mounting pressure.
Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 ("Pathétique"), first movement development — the stringendo passages create unbearable tension before the catastrophic climax.
Stringendo is one of 228 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary, where every definition is written around how composers actually use the word.
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