What does adagio mean in music?

Expression & tempo

Adagio

Italian, "at ease"

Adagio is a slow tempo marking, conventionally around 66 to 76 beats per minute, indicating music played at ease and with space rather than merely slowly.

For a string player an adagio is technically demanding in a way fast music is not: long bows expose every unevenness of tone, intonation has time to be heard, and there is nowhere for a shift to hide. Slow movements are where a section’s quality is actually audible.

The bow becomes the whole problem. Sustaining a slow note requires distributing the stroke so it does not run out, keeping the contact point steady as the speed drops, and using weight rather than speed for volume.

Largo is broader and usually slower still; lento is simply slow; grave is slow and heavy. Adagietto, as in Mahler’s Fifth, is a little faster and lighter than adagio.

Tempo: Tempo is the speed of a piece, given either as an Italian term such as Allegro or Adagio or as a precise metronome marking in beats per minute.
Andante: Andante is a tempo marking meaning a moderate walking pace, conventionally around 76 to 108 beats per minute, between the slow adagio and the moderate moderato.
Legato: Legato is playing notes smoothly connected with no audible gap between them; on a string instrument it usually means several notes under one bow, indicated by a slur.
Vibrato: Vibrato is a small, regular oscillation of pitch produced by rocking the left-hand finger on the string, used to warm and sustain a tone.

Every term in this glossary is taught in context somewhere in Arco's curricula, on the staff, on the keyboard, and on your own fingerboard at the same time.

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