Adagio

Adagio comes from the Italian ad agio, "at ease". It asks for a slow, relaxed tempo: slower than andante and usually a little faster than largo and lento. Many charts give roughly 60 to 76 beats per minute, but they disagree, and the music on the page matters more than the chart.

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An Adagio: the slow movement

The word is also used as a noun. In a sonata, symphony or concerto, "the Adagio" is often the slow movement, and some stand-alone pieces take it as their title, such as Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings. In ballet, an adagio is a slow, sustained section built on balance and line.

Adagio in real music

Beethoven marked the first movement of his "Moonlight" Sonata Adagio sostenuto, slow and sustained; our Moonlight Sonata study shows how the melody floats on the triplets at that tempo. The slow movement of his Pathétique Sonata is marked Adagio cantabile, slow and singing. Both show how often adagio is paired with an expression word such as sostenuto or cantabile.

Playing adagio

• Count in eighth notes. At 60 to 70 beats per minute a quarter-note beat is long. Feeling the eighths keeps dotted rhythms and rests exact.
• Keep it at ease, not heavy. If an adagio starts to sound like a funeral march, you are playing it as grave.
• Shape the long notes. A singer would sustain them with breath. On the piano, listen to each note fade and match the next note to it.

The related word adagietto, "a little adagio", marks a tempo slightly faster than adagio.

Adagio has its own band on the speedometer in Tempo & the Metronome. Put it in order with the other tempo words in Dynamics & Tempo Ladders, match it to its meaning in Match the terms, or look it up on the Musical terms & signs chart.