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How is meno mosso played?
Move into a less animated tempo at the marking, broadening the pace without assigning an absolute BPM. Unlike rallentando, meno mosso normally names the new local state rather than a gradual transition into it; if the score wants a progressive slowing, it can state that separately. Judge the amount against the preceding tempo, metre, phrase and character, and keep enough underlying pulse for the relationship to remain audible. The slower state lasts until più mosso, a tempo, Tempo I, a new metronome mark or another tempo instruction.
How does meno mosso sound?
The music opens out and feels broader and more deliberate, the energy easing without necessarily settling into a wholly new, fixed tempo.
In context
Meno mosso is a standard comparative tempo direction in orchestral, chamber and solo repertory. Trinity College London glosses it as slower at once, while Italian reference sources define più mosso and meno mosso in relation to the movement immediately before them. It therefore shapes a local ebb in motion without prescribing a universal speed and pairs naturally with più mosso for the later return or intensification.