IT accelerando tempo modification core term Support my free tools
- Abbreviation
- accel.
How is accelerando played?
Increase the tempo smoothly and steadily across the passage, usually toward a new tempo mark or until a tempo, Tempo I or another instruction cancels the change. Accelerando is the most neutral and primarily metric member of its cluster: it asks for a rising rate of speed, not automatically for added emotional pressure. Stringendo and incalzando commonly imply mounting urgency or intensity as well, so composers may pair accelerando with a separate dynamic or expressive word when they want more than acceleration. The abbreviation accel. may be followed by a dashed continuation line to show its span, but the line is optional and the score’s target or next marking determines the endpoint.
How does accelerando sound?
A smooth, controlled quickening — the music gathers momentum without necessarily intensifying in weight or agitation.
In context
Accelerando is the standard Italian counterpart to ritardando and a widely used tempo-modification term in Classical and Romantic repertoire, including music from Beethoven onward. It belongs to the standardized Italian vocabulary that nineteenth-century German composers such as Mahler sometimes replaced or supplemented with native directions including schneller and allmählich schneller. Trinity College London, the Open University and Finale independently document accel.; the less common accel⁰-style variant lacks enough strong independent support for production.