Allegretto is allegro with the diminutive ending, and it means both less fast and less bright. It is the marking for music that moves along cheerfully without ever being driven, which is why it is so common in second movements and in dances.
It is also the clearest case on this page of a marking that is a character rather than a number. Beethoven’s Allegretto — the second movement of the Seventh Symphony — is the most famous piece bearing the word, and it is almost universally performed slower than 112 BPM, because the movement is a processional and playing it at a brisk allegretto makes nonsense of it.
Take 112–120 as where the word points, then let the piece pull you off it. That is true of every marking here, and it is more true of this one than most.
Pieces marked allegretto
The middle column is the marking exactly as it is printed, qualifiers and all — which is usually more instructive than the word on its own.
| Piece | Marked |
|---|---|
| Beethoven — Symphony No. 7, 2nd movement | Allegretto |
| Beethoven — Symphony No. 8, 2nd movement | Allegretto scherzando |
| Brahms — Symphony No. 3, 3rd movement | Poco allegretto |
Where allegretto sits
The markings on either side, with the ranges the reference tables give them. They overlap, and that is not an error in the table — it is what the words are like.
| Marking | BPM | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Andante | 76–108 BPM | at a walking pace |
| Moderato | 108–120 BPM | moderately |
| Allegretto | 112–120 BPM | moderately fast |
| Allegro moderato | 116–120 BPM | not quite allegro |
| Allegro | 120–168 BPM | fast and bright |
The full ladder, from larghissimo to prestissimo, is on the index page.
How much to trust the number
Three things are true of every range on this site, and of every tempo table anywhere else:
- They are ranges, not values. Allegretto is a band 8 BPM wide, and both ends of it are correct.
- They varied by era. The words are centuries older than the metronome — Maelzel patented his in 1815, long after composers were writing adagio at the top of a page — so the numbers were fitted to the vocabulary afterwards, by people who disagreed. A Baroque andante and a Romantic andante are not the same speed, and neither is wrong.
- A metronome mark on the score always wins. If the music says ♩ = 96, that is the tempo, and the Italian word above it is telling you about character rather than speed. Set the number, ignore the table.
Published ranges for allegretto disagree more than for any other marking on this list — 98–109, 112–120 and 100–128 are all in print. The word is doing character work the numbers cannot capture.
One housekeeping note about this site specifically. The metronome’s live readout has to print exactly one marking for any tempo, so it uses a narrower, non-overlapping ladder in which allegretto runs 112–115 BPM. That band sits inside the 112–120 BPM above; it is the same marking, cut so that two names can never claim the same BPM.
Frequently asked questions
How fast is allegretto?
Allegretto is 112–120 BPM — moderately fast: a smaller, lighter allegro.
What is allegretto in BPM?
Allegretto is usually given as 112–120 BPM. At 112 BPM — the middle of that band, and the tempo the metronome on this page opens at — one beat lasts 536 milliseconds. Published ranges for allegretto disagree more than for any other marking on this list — 98–109, 112–120 and 100–128 are all in print. The word is doing character work the numbers cannot capture.
Is allegretto faster than allegro moderato?
Allegro moderato is the faster of the two: 116–120 BPM against 112–120 BPM. The two ranges overlap in most published tables, which is normal — these are descriptions of character that were fitted to numbers afterwards, so neighbouring markings shade into each other rather than meeting at a line.