Definition of "stretto"

stretto

/ˈstɹɛtəʊ/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural strettos or stretti
1. (music) The presence of two close or overlapping statements of the subject of a fugue, especially towards the end.
2. (music) An acceleration in the tempo of an opera that produces an ending climax.
adverb
not comparable
1. (music) With gradually increasing speed.
adjective
not comparable
1. (music) Having gradually increasing speed.
  Quotations
  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…
  1960, Thomas Pynchon, Entropy