What does ritardando mean?

• A. Gradually slowing down.
• B. Gradually getting softer.
• C. A curved line indicating legato between notes.
• D. Gradually speeding up.

Answer: (A)

Ritardando is a tempo instruction that tells you to slow down gradually through the passage. It’s about tempo, not volume or articulation, so it creates a sense of relaxation or tension release as the music decelerates. You’ll often see the abbreviation rit. in scores, sometimes followed by a tempo mark like a tempo or a new speed after the slowdown. This is different from getting softer, which would be a dynamic marking, and from a legato slur, which indicates connected phrasing rather than a change in speed. It’s also the opposite of speeding up, which would be accelerando.