Accelerando
Gradually getting faster — often abbreviated accel.
Related
Accelerando (accel.) means gradually getting faster: not a sudden gear change but a continuous increase over a stretch of music. It often appears at the end of a phrase, at a transition or before a climax, to build drive.
Keep it apart from più mosso: più mosso arrives at a new, faster tempo; accelerando is the process of speeding up. The usual mistake is to turn an accelerando into "rushing" — a good one has direction and restraint and still stands at the end of the phrase; mere hurry falls apart.
Read deeper → Tempo
Sources
- accelerando 的速度含义与记谱，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Tempo and tempo marks"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.