Adagio is the Italian phrase for ‘slowly’. It’s written on musical scores to point the piece needs to be performed at a gradual, leisurely tempo. The velocity at which a bit of music is performed can have a big impact on the general really feel or temper of the music, so composers have to take the tempo into consideration when relaying how they need their piece to be carried out.
How gradual is adagio?
Tempo is measured in beats per minute (BPM), with adagio having round 66-76 BPM (although some items labelled as adagio could also be carried out with barely extra or barely fewer BPM).
Examples of adagio music
The primary motion of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata is a well-known instance of an adagio tempo, however maybe one of many best-known adagio items of classical music is Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings. The latter’s gradual tempo mixed with its minor key creates a melancholy really feel all through the piece – it was even performed at Albert Einstein’s funeral. Barber’s 20th-century basic would have a very completely different really feel if it had been composed with a quicker tempo in thoughts.
