Un peu animé

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff where the music gains a little life, as a new state rather than a process; it lasts until the next tempo word or a cédez. In songs the voice and piano usually carry it in the same bar.

Also spelled: un peu anime

How Composers Use It

A slight lift in tempo and energy — the French poco animato. It is one of the commonest tempo shadings in French song, because it can colour a single phrase and then yield. It can be taken back almost at once — un peu animé, then cédez — so that the rise and fall shape one phrase. Write animez un peu instead when you want the music to get there gradually.

Example

Lili Boulanger, Dans l’immense tristesse, voice and piano, m. 47: “un peu animé”, followed in the next bar by “cédez” and “avec tendresse”.

Related Terms