# What does "adagio allego" as a tempo marking mean?



## obwan (Oct 24, 2011)

I've encounted a section of a late baroque solo fantassy with "adagio allegro" marked at the beginings of several consecutive measures. I was so curious I even found a copy of the composers autograph, and sure enough it says "ad all" for like 4 measures straight. Am I to take it that the first 2 beats are played adagio while the second 2 are played allegro? Unless I find out otherwise thats what I'm going to assume.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Sheet music, please?


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## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

It means scream and cry to yourself, tear up the score, print out a new one and furiously scribble over the offending tempo marking with a permanent marker or paintbrush. Then play at whatever tempo you think sounds best.


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## obwan (Oct 24, 2011)

Thanks for the replys, but several youtubes have it interpreted the same way. 1 quater note tied to a triplet followed by the other 2 triplets, played adagio, then 2 more sets of triplets played allegro. 

At first I thought that that must be wrong. It must be the 'happy' meaning of allegro used here. And he was saying ok its slow (adagio), but its still happy. But then why would he have repeated the tempo marking the following measure, unless it would have been assumed that the tempo had changed? Unless 'ad all' has some other meaning... maybe something similar to 'et al'?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

obwan said:


> Thanks for the replys, but several youtubes have it interpreted the same way. 1 quater note tied to a triplet followed by the other 2 triplets, played adagio, then 2 more sets of triplets played allegro.
> 
> At first I thought that that must be wrong. It must be the 'happy' meaning of allegro used here. And he was saying ok its slow (adagio), but its still happy. But then why would he have repeated the tempo marking the following measure, unless it would have been assumed that the tempo had changed? Unless 'ad all' has some other meaning... maybe something similar to 'et al'?


Maybe sempre...


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

That movement might be a multi-temo piece. Its first part is slower (adagio) and then it -second part- becomes faster (allegro) ... like *Haydn*'s Symphony No.96 in D major - I. Adagio - Allegro


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

If you could provide some sheet music, I think it would be easier for us to deduce what is meant. But I think allegro is meant here to mean happy. Happily at ease in this case.


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## obwan (Oct 24, 2011)

This clearly shows 2 consecutive measures with the same tiempo marking, indicating (at least on the part of the editors) that a tiempo change is assumed: 








This is Telemann's autograph:








Can this be indication that rubato was accepted in the baroque period, at least for solo instruments?
I don't know what else to make of it.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

If I am not mistaken, rubato was a very important part of Baroque music, just not the same sort of rubato you'd get in a piece by Chopin.


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

I think that the indications don't necessarily signify a change in tempo (at least not HUGE SIGNIFICANT ones), but rather a change in mood. Have you talked about this to someone who might know this stuff better than us? That might be a good idea as well.


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## Faville (Sep 15, 2012)

I don't know the piece, but if I were interpreting that on my violin without benefit of any recordings, and assuming it's a solo piece, I would play the passage pretty freely without adherence to much of an internal beat.

The first long pitch of the sequence would sing, shaped by bow speed and perhaps a touch of vibrato, followed by immediately faster triplets (the allegro is clearly placed on the first spoken note after the tie), but the first two triplets (still marked forte) would be a medium tempo with accelerando and the following two triplets (marked piano) would be even faster but preferably steady "bright" tempo. I would possibly make each phrase statement slightly different depending on how the harmony, pitch and voicing effects the picture being painted.

As a player now responsible largely for his own interpretations, I don't see any reason to make that first set of triplets still Adagio. The question in my mind would be whether or not to make the entire set of triplets the same Allegro speed, or to make them gradually emerge from the Adagio more organically to arrive at a true Allegro by the time "piano" is marked. If the YouTube videos keep the first set of triplets a real Adagio, I would say that was a completely arbitrary decision made by the performers based on personal preference.

The following even weirder marking of adagio [allegro] looks like the editor covering his bases since the manuscript says "ad:" and the next movement's "Allegro" marking sits on the page right next to it.


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## obwan (Oct 24, 2011)

Faville said:


> I don't know the piece, but if I were interpreting that on my violin without benefit of any recordings, and assuming it's a solo piece, I would play the passage pretty freely without adherence to much of an internal beat.


Yeah thats exactly how the majority of the youtube videos have been interpreting it.


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