Accelerando/rallentando

Towards the illusion of an endless accelerando/ritardando

By Svend Hvidtfelt Nielsen

Per Nørgård has worked with ritardando and accelerando in several different ways.

Per Nørgård himself distinguishes between two major basic types:

A) The condemned

'The condemned' (Nørgård used this term in an article entitled 'Hastighed og acceleration' (*Speed and Acceleration'), DMT No. 4 1985/86) are those kinds of acceleration that quickly reach a maximum and remain there, marking time on some kind of fixed pulse.

This kind of accelerando can be heard, for example, in the percussion work Waves, and the piano work Grooving, see the sample score below:

B) The continuous

Nørgård has concentrated most of his attention on the continuous type, and there are several sub-categories:
1.
Accelerando controlled by the musician using periodic accentuations (found in the opera Gilgamesh).
2.
Accelerando/ritardando controlled by the conductor with a shift to half/double tempo (found in the cello concerto Between and the violin concerto Helle Nacht).
3.
Acceleration content (the background for the following sections).
4.
Ritardando as the continual appearance of more material (found in the violin concerto Helle Nacht).
5.
Formal ritardando.

Score samples © Edition WH