Rigoroso

What it means

Rigoroso means “strict, precise” and calls for a performance of strict exactness, especially in tempo and rhythm. Freedoms such as rubato, stretching at phrase endings, or agogic shaping are excluded; the pulse stays unchanged.

The word often appears in the phrase a tempo rigoroso or tempo rigoroso, which explicitly calls for a strictly kept tempo.

Rigoroso differs from giusto and tempo giusto, which likewise call for exactness, through the sharpness of the demand: giusto can also mean “at a suitable tempo,” rigoroso means strictness exclusively. It differs from ritmico, which calls for rhythmic distinctness, in that it means not the accentuation but the immovability.

In the notation

The word stands in italics above the staff and applies until a new marking. It often stands where there is a danger of too free a conception — for instance after a free section, in dance movements, or in passages that tempt toward rubato.

Musical use

The marking is used in music whose effect depends on the relentlessness of the pulse: in motoric movements, in dance-like sections, in passages in which different layers run against each other and only a firm pulse holds them together. In twentieth-century music it is more frequent than in earlier periods.

The instruction calls for a strict performance at an exact tempo, without rubato or free stretchings. It often stands after free sections and restores the firm pulse. It is found in twentieth-century music and in études, where rhythmic precision matters...

Performance practice

Forgo any agogic freedom and shape through dynamics, articulation, and tone colour. Occasionally check with the metronome whether you are unnoticedly yielding at phrase endings or pulling ahead at dense passages. Keep the beats exact even in rests. And bear in mind that strictness does not mean rigidity: the metric accents remain audible.