Stretto

Stretto (Italian: 'narrow', 'pushed') is a musical performance designation and means something like 'increased, accelerated'.

As Stretta the effective, often virtuosic final increase in a composition is referred to, it is called at Aktfinalen in operas of 18/19. Century of a 'final stretta'. An example of this is the finale of the first act of Mozart's Don Giovanni , in which the final sextet is followed by an andante maestoso by an allegro , which finally increases to a più stretto .

In the fugue , a stretto is a narrowing : one voice begins with a melodic theme, a second (third, fourth) joins the same melodic theme before the first has finished the theme, so that the inserts seem to be precipitous. In the joint, too, this compression is usually used to increase the finish.