IT adagio tempo core term Support my free tools
- Abbreviation
- adgo.
- Tempo
- 58–97 BPM Click to play the tempo Sources disagree sharply: other tables give 44–66 or 66–76 BPM, and historical metronome calibrations for the same word range from 54 to 70. The oldest reference works give no number at all, placing Adagio only between Andante and Largo.
What the sources say
| Source | BPM |
|---|---|
| Dolmetsch Online (reconciled modern range) | 58–97 |
| Dolmetsch Online, citing other sources (higher cluster) | 66–76 |
| Dolmetsch Online, citing other sources (lower cluster) | 48–66 |
| Dolmetsch Online -- 19th-century Maelzel metronome calibration | 60 |
| Dolmetsch Online -- 1950 metronome calibration | 54 |
| Dolmetsch Online -- modern electronic metronome calibration | 70 |
| Wikipedia, 'Tempo' (citing Elson's Pocket Music Dictionary, 1909) | 44–66 |
| Frans Absil tempo-indications table (single reference point) | 40 |
How is adagio played?
Shape a spacious pulse with sustained breath and weight rather than treating Adagio as a mechanical number. Treccani places it between Andante and Largo, but historical and modern metronome tables disagree widely, so the surrounding metre, note values, qualifiers and any composer-supplied mark decide the pace. Its ease often invites lyrical or cantabile breadth, grave or deeply felt expression, and carefully judged rubato, yet none of those colours is automatic. As a movement title it commonly identifies the expressive centre of a sonata or symphony.
How does adagio sound?
The effect is spacious and song-like, typically lyrical, grave, or deeply felt — the tempo most associated in the popular ear with profound, mournful string melody.
In context
Samuel Barber completed the slow movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11 in 1936 and arranged it as Adagio for Strings; Toscanini and the NBC Symphony premiered that version on 5 November 1938, and the work later became closely associated with public mourning. The “Albinoni Adagio” was published by Ricordi in 1958 under Remo Giazotto’s name and a claimed Albinoni source; the alleged fragment remains disputed, so it is safer to describe the familiar music as substantially Giazotto’s twentieth-century creation rather than an authenticated Albinoni work. Mahler’s Ninth ends with Adagio. Sehr langsam und noch zurückhaltend, extending the late-Romantic Adagio tradition. Historical dictionaries attest adgo. as a real short form, though modern scores often write Adagio in full.
Music theory and score context
See also
- Tempo (Wikipedia)
- Glossary of musical terminology (Wikipedia)
- Barber, Adagio for Strings (Wikipedia)
- Adagio in G minor ('Albinoni Adagio') (Wikipedia)
- Mahler, Symphony No. 9 — Adagio finale (Wikipedia)
- Treccani — adagio
- Dictionnaire de l’Académie française — adagio
- Library of Congress National Recording Registry — Adagio for Strings
- University of Macedonia repository — Giazotto, Adagio in sol minore (Ricordi, 1958)
- Katie Harling-Lee, “Listening to survive,” Violence: An international journal 1(2) (2020)
- Mahler Foundation — Symphony No. 9, movement 4