Assai
“Very”, strengthening the tempo word that follows.
What it means
Assai means “very” and strengthens the word to which it is joined. Allegro assai thus calls for a tempo distinctly above an ordinary Allegro, Adagio assai for a pronounced slowness. The word never stands alone but always as an addition.
Note an older reading: in some eighteenth-century sources assai was understood as “sufficiently, enough”, which would soften rather than strengthen the marking. This interpretation counts as outdated today but is met with in the literature on performance practice. The strengthening meaning is the binding one.
Assai is to be distinguished from molto, which likewise means “very” and counts as the somewhat more emphatic word; the gradation, however, is handled differently from composer to composer. The counterpart is poco, “a little”. Ma non troppo has a qualifying effect.
In the notation
The word stands in italics after the tempo or character word, above the first system of a movement or section, and becomes part of the movement’s name. It also joins performance markings, for instance in cantabile assai.
Musical use
Strengthening and qualifying additions have belonged to the stock of tempo designation since the Baroque. They allow fine gradations to be expressed with few base words, without introducing new terms. In the Viennese Classicism they are especially frequent; there the same movement type can turn out very differently according to the addition.
In Baroque and Classical music the exact meaning is not unambiguous: besides “very”, assai can also mean “enough” or “rather”, so that allegro assai means, according to context, very fast or sufficiently fast. Today’s practice usually understands it as a strengthening. The word stands in combinations such as adagio assai, allegro assai or assai moderato.
Performance practice
Read the heading in full before you choose the tempo: the addition often alters it more strongly than the base word. Check whether the strengthened tempo still carries at the densest place of the movement. And keep the chosen degree throughout the movement, instead of showing it only at the start.