Tempo Change Markings: Accelerando, Ritardando, Rubato and A Tempo

What are tempo change markings?

They are Italian terms that change the speed relative to the tempo already in force. A fixed marking such as andante sets a speed; a change marking such as ritardando moves away from that speed and has meaning only in relation to it.

Because they are relative, change markings carry no BPM range. A ritardando in an adagio and a ritardando in a presto both slow down, from very different starting points. Change markings fall into three groups: gradual changes, sudden changes and returns. Composers can also allow flexible time with rubato.

Gradual changes: accelerando, ritardando, rallentando

Accelerando and stringendo speed up gradually; ritardando, rallentando and allargando slow down gradually. The change spreads over several beats or bars, often shown by a dashed line after the abbreviation.

Allargando shares its root with largo (“broad”): the music widens as well as slows.

Rit. vs rall. vs riten.: what is the difference?

Ritardando and rallentando both slow down gradually; ritenuto slows down at once. The abbreviation “rit.” is ambiguous because it can stand for either ritardando or ritenuto.

• Ritardando (rit.) delays the beat step by step. Most musicians treat it as a plain, gradual slowing.
• Rallentando (rall.) also slows gradually. Many performers give it a sense of relaxing or winding down, often toward an ending.
• Ritenuto (riten.) means “held back”. The slower tempo arrives immediately and holds until the next marking.

In practice ritardando and rallentando are close to interchangeable in modern playing. When a score writes only “rit.”, the context decides: a dashed line after it points to a gradual ritardando, while a sudden new tempo points to ritenuto.

Sudden changes and returns: meno mosso, più mosso, a tempo

Meno mosso and più mosso change the speed at once; a tempo, tempo primo and l’istesso tempo restore or keep a speed. These markings take effect at the bar where they appear.

A tempo and tempo primo differ after several changes. After an allegro, a meno mosso and a ritardando, “a tempo” returns to the meno mosso speed, while “Tempo I” returns to the allegro. L’istesso tempo matters at a meter change, for example from 2/4 to 6/8, where it tells the player that the new beat, the dotted quarter, lasts as long as the old quarter-note beat. The guide to time signatures and beat units explains the two kinds of beat.

What does rubato mean?

Rubato means flexible time: the performer stretches some notes and hurries others for expression. The term is short for tempo rubato, “stolen time”, because time taken in one place is given back in another.

Rubato has no direction and no length, and is most associated with Romantic piano music. Two practices share the name: in one, the melody moves freely over a steady accompaniment; in the other, the whole texture bends together. Both keep the overall pulse recognizable, so rubato is not the same as a ritardando or an accelerando.

Poco a poco, molto and other modifiers

Modifiers set how much and how quickly a change happens. They attach to any change marking.

• Poco a poco — “little by little”: spread the change evenly over a long passage, as in poco a poco accelerando.
• Poco — “a little”: poco rit. asks for a small slowing.
• Molto — “very much”: molto rall. asks for a large slowing.
• Subito — “suddenly”: subito meno mosso changes the tempo without warning.

How conductors and performers apply tempo changes

A conductor shows a tempo change through the size and spacing of the beat; a soloist shapes it by ear. In both cases the change should follow a smooth curve, not a series of jumps.

For a ritardando, a conductor typically makes each beat a little larger and later, and at the end of a strong ritardando often subdivides, beating eighth notes, so the ensemble stays together. For an accelerando the beats become smaller and quicker. Ensemble players watch for these cues rather than guessing a rate. A soloist has more freedom, but the same rule holds: the change begins where the marking stands, grows through the dashed line and settles at the next tempo marking or a tempo.

How to practice a gradual tempo change with a metronome

Step the metronome by a fixed BPM each bar until the change feels smooth, then remove the click. A stepped change is the closest a metronome comes to a gradual one.

The five accelerando bars last 10,954.49 ms in total, against 12,000 ms at a steady 100 BPM. The six ritardando bars last 13,847.09 ms, against 12,000 ms at a steady 120 BPM. The accelerando is a 20% rise and the ritardando a 25% drop; the BPM percentage change calculator works out the size of any other change.

1. Choose the start and end tempos and the number of bars the change covers.
2. Divide the BPM difference by the number of steps to get the step size, for example 20 ÷ 4 = 5 BPM per bar.
3. Play each bar with the metronome reset to that bar’s BPM, pausing between bars at first.
4. Record the passage, remove the click and aim for a smooth curve through the same start and end tempos.

The full list of fixed tempos that these changes start from and return to is on the tempo markings chart page.

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