IT ritenuto tempo modification common Support my free tools
- Abbreviation
- riten., rit.
How is ritenuto played?
Typically move to the slower speed at once and sustain it across the indicated note or local span, until a tempo or the next tempo instruction. Dictionaries gloss the term as 'suddenly slower, held back' and note that, unlike a gradual ritardando, it can apply to a single note. It may act as a momentary check or change of character rather than a lasting tempo change, and repertoire does not make the immediate-versus-gradual contrast absolute. Because rit. can also mean ritardando, editors often use riten. to make the intended instruction clear.
How does ritenuto sound?
The music seems to brake or lean back suddenly, giving a moment of held-back weight or hesitation rather than a smooth slackening.
In context
Grove gives the strict historical distinction: ritenuto can establish one uniform slower rate across a passage, whereas each bar or phrase of a rallentando becomes progressively slower; Beethoven's String Quartet Op. 131 and Chopin's Rondo Op. 16 illustrate the account. Actual usage also overlaps, so this remains a defensible interpretive distinction rather than an invariant rule. A Mahler part places riten. beside separate rit. markings, while dictionaries attest rit. for ritenuto as well; the shared compact form therefore depends on context.