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Too (nicht zu schnell, not too fast); also “to” (zu Tempo I zurückkehren). In wind and brass parts zu 2 or zu 3 puts two or three players on the same line (= a 2).
Rarely printed by itself; it is the hinge of compound directions — nicht zu schnell (too), zu Tempo I zurückkehren (to), zum Schluss (to the end) — and, in wind and brass parts, zu 2 or zu 3, which puts two or three players on one line until a part number (1.) or Solo separates them again.
Read it from its partner word, never alone. In tempo headings it almost always sits inside nicht zu, the German ma non troppo. In orchestral parts zu 2 is the German a 2 and needs its own cancellation (1., 2. or Solo) when the players divide; printing one line with zu 2 is clearer than doubling every stem when the players share a staff.
Zu 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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