presto

Presto is Italian for 'quickly,' 'readily,' or 'at once' — from Late Latin praesto (at hand, ready, available), itself from Latin prae (before, in front) and sto (I stand): to stand in front, to be ready. The same Latin root gives Italian presto in its everyday sense of 'soon' or 'quickly' (as in al più presto, as soon as possible) and the musical sense of a very fast tempo. The Latin praesto is also the root of the English 'presto' used by conjurers, though this use came through Italian stage magic vocabulary and not directly from the musical term.

In music, presto is among the fastest of the standard Italian tempo designations. The classical hierarchy from slowest to fastest runs roughly: grave, largo, larghetto, adagio, andante, moderato, allegretto, allegro, vivace, presto, prestissimo — with presto indicating a very fast pace and prestissimo (the superlative) indicating the fastest possible. These Italian tempo markings became standard in European music notation during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when Italian music dominated European courts and the language of Italian opera and instrumental music became the universal language of musical instruction. A composer writing presto — whether German, French, Austrian, or English — was adopting the Italian standard.

The most celebrated presto movement in the standard repertoire is probably the final movement of Beethoven's 'Moonlight' Sonata (Op. 27, No. 2, 1801) — marked presto agitato (fast and agitated), it is a ferocious torrent of rapid arpeggios and thundering bass lines that contradicts everything the sonata's famous slow first movement established. The contrast is deliberate and devastating: the famous adagio sostenuto opening creates an expectation of gentle moonlight contemplation that the presto finale violently refuses. The sonata's dramatic structure depends on the opposition of these two extremes of the tempo spectrum.

In English, 'presto' also functions as an exclamation in stage magic: 'Hey presto!' (British) or 'Presto!' (American) accompanies the magician's reveal — the moment when the impossible has apparently occurred. This use comes from Italian stage magic vocabulary, where presto (quickly, at once) indicated the sudden completion of a trick. The word passed into English conjuring usage by the eighteenth century and has remained there ever since, functioning as the secular equivalent of a magic spell. In this non-musical use, presto conveys the sense of sudden transformation: one moment it was not there, and presto — now it is.