Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adverb & adjective Gradually slackening in tempo; ritardando. Used chiefly as a direction.
- noun A rallentando passage or movement.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In music, becoming slower; with decreasing rapidity. Also
rallentato . Abbreviated rall. Compareritardando and ritenuto.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective (Mus.) Slackening; -- a direction to perform a passage with a gradual decrease in time and force; ritardando.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective music
slackening ; becoming slower (used as amusical direction ).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb slowing down
- adjective gradually decreasing in tempo
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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But music critics must either attempt to describe the evanescent and ineffable, which can lead to gushy impressionism, or they must transcribe bars of music notation and start talking about subdominants, rallentando and other arcane compositional matters.
Thomas Larson's 'The Saddest Music Ever Written,' reviewed by Michael Dirda 2010
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But music critics must either attempt to describe the evanescent and ineffable, which can lead to gushy impressionism, or they must transcribe bars of music notation and start talking about subdominants, rallentando and other arcane compositional matters.
Thomas Larson's 'The Saddest Music Ever Written,' reviewed by Michael Dirda 2010
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After Underworld, an 800-page tour de force, DeLillo's career turned towards the miniature: The Body Artist (2001), Cosmopolis (2003), The Falling Man (2007) are much slighter books, a rallentando that suggests a writer moving inexorably into the minor key of old age.
Don DeLillo: 'I'm not trying to manipulate reality – this is what I see and hear' 2010
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He listened patiently, pursed his lips, then played a rallentando on his computer keyboard.
2010 Odyssey Two Clarke, Arthur C. 1982
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Interest from various numbered trusts was still turned, by family banks down in Boston every second or third generation, back into yet another trust, in long rallentando, in infinite series just perceptibly, term by term, dying ... but never quite to the zero ....
Gravity's Rainbow Pynchon, Thomas 1978
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Not only are singers allowed to walk and gesticulate on the stage without paying any attention to the time, but also no shade of expression, dynamic or motor, of the orchestra -- crescendo, decrescendo, accelerando, rallentando -- finds in their gestures adequate realization.
The Eurhythmics of Jaques-Dalcroze Emile Jaques-Dalcroze
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Surely, the composer intended a pronounced _rallentando_ on the latter half of the bar, and a carrying of the voice by a
Style in Singing W. E. Haslam
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There was a little wailing _rallentando_, and silence.
The Right Stuff Some Episodes in the Career of a North Briton Ian Hay 1914
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At the third line of the verse the evangelist joined in great massive tones, beating time vigorously in a rallentando.
The Major Ralph Connor 1898
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Aside from a few rallentando places, the etude is to be played strictly in time.
Chopin : the Man and His Music James Huneker 1890
reesetee commented on the word rallentando
In music, progressively slower
February 23, 2007