Agitato
Restless, unsettled delivery — not simply a faster tempo
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Agitato comes from the Italian agitare, "to stir, to unsettle", the same root as English "agitate". It asks for a restless, surging, barely contained tone: sharper accents, shorter breath, phrases pushed forward.
It governs character, not speed. The same andante can be agitato, and an allegro need not be. The usual mistake is to read agitato as "faster and louder" — real unease often comes from an unstable bass, tense harmony and small jabbing accents, and plenty of agitato passages are quiet.
Read deeper → appassionato
Sources
- agitato 的表情含义与用法，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Agitato"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.