Veloce

As Printed on a Score

In piano and solo music it is most often printed over a run, cadenza or cluster of small notes rather than as a heading, and applies only to that flourish; it may sit beside ad libitum or leggiero. As a heading above the staff it lasts until the next tempo word.

How Composers Use It

Veloce asks for velocity and lightness — fingers moving quickly with little weight — so it is a manner as much as a speed. Liszt and Rachmaninoff use it to free a decorative passage from the strict pulse around it; if the surrounding beat must resume, mark a tempo after the run. In orchestral writing use it sparingly: a whole section cannot flex the way a soloist can, so a clear tempo word or accelerando is usually safer.

Example

Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12, m. 93: “veloce.”, printed with “ad libitum” and “poco a poco accel.” in the same bar, the passage then thinning through “dimin.” and “smorz.” over the next two bars.

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