Senza tempo

What it means

Senza tempo means literally 'without tempo' and calls for a delivery without a fixed, even meter. Note values still indicate the relative duration of notes to one another, but not an absolute, steady tempo.

The instruction is equivalent in meaning to a piacere ('at pleasure') and is often used interchangeably with it.

Musical use

Senza tempo appears frequently in recitative-like sections, cadenzas, or improvisatory-sounding passages, where the performer is meant to largely shape tempo and agogics themselves rather than adhere to a predetermined pulse.

In such sections the tempo tends to follow the expressive content of the music, the breath length of a phrase, or technical demands rather than a fixed beat, so each performance may turn out slightly different in tempo and agogics.

Senza tempo should be distinguished from rubato, which likewise implies a flexible tempo but usually occurs within a fundamentally recognizable underlying pulse, whereas senza tempo suspends that underlying pulse entirely for the passage in question.

Performance practice

In a senza tempo passage, use the freedom deliberately to shape musical arcs of tension and breathing spaces naturally, rather than simply playing the passage at any arbitrary speed. Agree carefully within the ensemble on how to find your way back together to a fixed tempo after the free passage.