stretto

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The presence of two close or overlapping statements of the subject of a fugue, especially towards the end.

   “In classical music there are, as the analytical programs tell us, first subjects and second subjects, free fantasias, recapitulations, and codas; there are fugues, with counter-subjects, strettos, and pedal points; there are passacaglias on ground basses, canons ad hypodiapente, and other ingenuities, which have, after all, stood or fallen by their prettiness as much as the simplest folk-tune.”

2. (countable, uncountable)An acceleration in the tempo of an opera that produces an ending climax.

adv

1. (not-comparable)With gradually increasing speed.

adj

1. (not-comparable)Having gradually increasing speed.

   “So that over and above the public components – holidays, tourist attractions – there are private meanderings, linked to the climate as if this spell were a stretto passage in the year’s fugue: haphazard weather, aimless loves, unpredicted commitments…”