Stretto

Stretto (plural: stretti), from the Italian "stringere" "to draw close" is a musical term for when a fugue motif is used to accompany itself. For example, if the alto voice begins the subject before the soprano voice has completed its prior entry of the subject, that is a stretto.

A "stretto" is most often used to intensify the contrapuntal density of a piece, often signifying arrival at the fugue's conclusion, as seen in Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, [http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/wtc/i01.html#movie Fugue No. 1] (External Shockwave movie). In other instances stretto serves to display contrapuntal inventiveness, as in the [http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/wtc/ii09.html#movie E Major fugue] (External Shockwave movie) from WTC Book II, where Bach follows a traditional exposition (subject accompanied by countersubject) with a counterexposition in which the subject accompanies itself, in stretto, followed by the countersubject accompanying itself.

When written as an expressive mark in a piece, "stretto" indicates a temporary accelerando or hastening forward, as in measure 227 of Chopin's third ballade, measures 16 and 17, of his Prelude no. 4 in e minor and measure 25 of his Etude op. 10 no. 25, the Revolutionary.

ee also

*Music theory
*Fugue