Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Played with an accelerating tempo. Used chiefly as a direction.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In music, pressing or accelerating the tempo: usually with a crescendo. Also incalzando.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Mus.) Urging or hastening the time, as to a climax.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A passage in music to be played gradually faster; a section of music with in which the tempo slowly increases.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Italian, gerund of stringere, to draw tight, from Latin; see streig- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Italian stringendo ("tightening").

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Examples

  • _Accelerando_, _affrettando_ [Transcriber's Note: Corrected misspelling "affretando" in original] (this term implies some degree of excitement also), _stringendo_, _poco a poco animato_.

    Music Notation and Terminology Karl Wilson Gehrkens 1928

Comments

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  • pushing together.

    i love that.

    October 11, 2007

  • Funny, I've never heard this direction before.

    October 11, 2007