DE bewegt, doch nicht schnell tempo advanced Support my free tools
How is bewegt, doch nicht schnell played?
Maintain active inner motion, clear pulse and forward-shaped phrasing without crossing into a fast tempo. Bewegt asks for animation and mobility, while doch nicht schnell corrects the easy mistake of equating that character with sheer speed; neither half cancels the other. Let articulation, subdivision and phrase direction create life inside a controlled pace, and treat the limit as relative to the work, movement and acoustics rather than converting it into a universal BPM. The state continues until another tempo or character instruction.
How does bewegt, doch nicht schnell sound?
Mobile but held in check.
Bewegt, doch nicht schnell, moving but not fast, restrains an otherwise animated tempo, and as a general lexicon term it's relative rather than codified. It happens to be the printed heading of the finale of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony, where some early editions do carry a metronome figure — but that number belongs to one specific, disputed print history (the tempo layer was reworked by Nikisch, Schalk and Löwe, and later editors such as Nowak bracketed it to flag doubt about its authenticity). It isn't a general meaning of the phrase itself, and no terminology reference gives it a BPM outside that one contested score.
In context
Bruckner uses Bewegt, doch nicht schnell as a complete finale heading in Symphony No. 6, and Mahler’s official work catalogue records the close phrase Kräftig bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell in Symphony No. 1. Breitkopf’s critical-edition material preserves the same balance in translation: strongly moving, but not too fast. The phrase therefore joins character and tempo restraint in one instruction; it should be written out, and no stable general abbreviation was established.
Equivalent terms
- IT mosso, ma non troppo
- EN animated, but not fast
- DA bevæget, men ikke hurtigt