Adagio

Adagio is Italian for ‘at ease’ or ‘leisurely’. As a tempo marking it indicates a slow speed, characteristically dignified and unhurried. Conventional metronome charts place adagio at about 66–76 BPM, slower than andante and faster than largo.

Adagio is the tempo of the great slow movements: the Adagio of Beethoven’s Pathétique sonata, the Adagio cantabile of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23, the Adagio for Strings of Samuel Barber. The marking implies space — phrases unfold with patience, harmonic motion can be savoured, melodies can stretch out.

The affect of adagio is typically reflective, sometimes elegiac, sometimes religious. But it is not lifeless; even at slow tempo, the music must breathe and progress. An adagio that feels mortuary has missed the leisurely, easeful character of the marking.

Italian, ‘at ease’, from ad (‘at’) + agio (‘ease, leisure’), itself from Old French aise.

Sustain through the long notes — they are not rests in disguise. Keep the harmonic motion alive in your inner ear, even when the surface slows. The danger of adagio is collapse, not haste.