Più mosso

More animated than before

“Più” means “more”, “mosso” “moved, lively”. Più mosso therefore asks for a more animated way of playing and so a faster tempo than the previous one. The mark names no metronome number but a distance from what came before: how much faster follows from the piece and the performance.

Change and course

Più mosso usually appears at a phrase boundary and takes effect immediately: where the mark appears, the new, more animated tempo begins. This distinguishes it from accelerando, which speeds the tempo up gradually. If “più mosso” appears in large type above the staff, it is to be read as a new tempo mark. The counterpart is “meno mosso”, less animated.

How long does it hold?

It holds until a new tempo mark appears. “A tempo” then leads back to the tempo that held before the change, “tempo primo” to the opening tempo of the piece. If several changes follow one another, this can make a difference: the “a tempo” after a “più mosso” means the tempo before the più mosso.

Common mistakes

• Changing too quickly: Più mosso means “more animated”, not “as fast as possible”.
• Letting the tempo waver: The new tempo holds evenly until the next mark.
• Confusing più mosso with accelerando: Più mosso is a new tempo, accelerando a speeding up.