Rushing and Dragging
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When performers unintentionally speed up, they are said to rush. The similar term for unintentionally slowing down is drag.
Musicians generally consider unintentional tempo drift undesirable, and these terms thus carry a negative connotation.
Therefore neither rush nor drag (nor their equivalents in other languages) are often used as tempo indications in scores. Mahler is a notable exception. For example, he used schleppend (dragging) as part of a tempo indication in the first movement of his Symphony No. 1.
Read more about this topic: Tempo
Famous quotes containing the words rushing and/or dragging:
“The rushing Pequod, freighted with savages, laden with fire, and burning a corpse, and plunging into that blackness of darkness, seemed the material counterpart of her monomaniac commander’s soul.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“When I had reached my term, I looked like a rat dragging a stolen egg.”
—Colette [Sidonie Gabrielle Colette] (1873–1954)