Allegretto

Allegretto is the diminutive of allegro: a ‘little allegro’, lighter and slightly slower. In standard tempo charts it sits between allegro and andante, often around 100–120 BPM, though as always the exact speed depends on the music.

Allegretto carries a particular character: it is brisk but not driving, lively but not urgent. Beethoven’s famous Allegretto in the Seventh Symphony is iconic — a movement that walks rather than runs, but with such rhythmic insistence that it became the most popular movement of the symphony.

The marking is also common in scherzo-replacement movements: not as fast as a true scherzo, less stately than a minuet, occupying a middle ground that suits 19th-century chamber and orchestral writing. Schubert and Brahms favour it; so does much of the operatic repertoire for transitional and lyrical numbers.

Italian, diminutive of allegro. The -etto suffix makes the adjective ‘a little allegro’.

Don’t mistake allegretto for a slow allegro. The character is its own — graceful, conversational, neither hurried nor leisurely. Articulation should be lighter than allegro; phrasing more lyrical.