IT ritardando tempo modification core term Support my free tools
- Abbreviation
- rit., ritard.
How is ritardando played?
Ease the pulse down progressively over the marked span rather than dropping to a slower speed at once, then return a tempo or settle at the new tempo indicated when the passage ends. Ritardando is the standard instruction for graduated deceleration and is often treated as interchangeable with rallentando. Ritenuto can suggest a more immediate or locally uniform holding back, while allargando adds breadth and usually weight, but such distinctions are not absolute: an isolated rit. and its surrounding tempo language must be read in context. From the mid-nineteenth century, composers often clarified the degree of change with qualifiers such as poco a poco or molto.
How does ritardando sound?
The line seems to relax and lose momentum by degrees, most often signalling repose, arrival, or the gentle approach to a cadence or phrase-end.
In context
Standard dictionaries describe ritardando and rallentando as near-synonyms for a gradual reduction of speed, and the debate over a distinction between them runs back to Grove. Rallentando is scarcely found before the nineteenth century, while Beethoven—whose published metronome marks helped establish modern tempo vocabulary—generally preferred ritardando. Etymological attempts to separate the terms, including the sense of lateness or deferral in ritardare, remain subordinate to musical context. Oxford, publisher and conservatory sources support rit. as the common compact form and ritard. as an attested, less ambiguous expansion; Grove likewise makes the sharper contrast with ritenuto useful historically without turning it into an absolute modern rule.