Prestissimo BPM: faster than presto?
Prestissimo is the fast end of the ordinary Italian list. Wikipedia (Tempo, read 2026-10-13) starts it at 200 and puts presto at 168–200. Metronomus says above 200, with presto at 168–200. Arabesque says 200 or more, with presto at 168–200. The clip on this page is marked Prestissimo, and the repeating pulse we locked onto sits near 158 per minute, under that floor.
The floor at 200 is the useful edge
| Page | Presto | Prestissimo |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia, Tempo | 168–200 | 200 and above |
| Metronomus | 168–200 | Above 200 |
| Arabesque Conservatory | 168–200 | 200 or more. Page updated September 2, 2026. |
| Lumen chapter | 168–177 | Described as very, very fast. No number in the text we extracted. |
| Cambridge | Not this entry | Perform very fast. No BPM in the text we read. |
| OnMusic dictionary | Not this entry | Points at tempo markings in an appendix. The entry we opened states no BPM. Last updated 2016-06-06. |
Presto’s own write-up, including a measured Presto agitato, lives in the Presto section of tempo markings. Our Allegro page already shows allegro bands that top out at 156, 168 or so. Prestissimo is the step past presto, not a synonym of allegro.
A “Presto vs Prestissimo” URL that showed up in search did not open: the candidates we tried on Tunable’s site returned 404. It is not a row.
A Prestissimo movement under the chart floor
Borodin’s String Quartet No. 1, third movement, is titled Scherzo. Prestissimo on the Commons file, played by the Musopen String Quartet in 2012. The composition is public domain. The recording is public domain, author Musopen.
Both 158 and 79 sit under the “200 and above” floor. That is the useful clash: the movement is marked Prestissimo, and this performance’s locked pulse is not at the chart floor. Windows across the short movement stayed near 158, with a half-rate near 79 to 81. Until a score or a Wikipedia page states the meter, this page will not call 158 a quarter-note tempo.
How 158 and 79 were estimated
An onset envelope of the excerpt was searched from 140 to 220 per minute, then again from 60 to 110. The fast band peaked near 158. The slow band peaked near 79 to 81. The same fast peak, about 158, showed up on several stretches of the full file. The excerpt itself starts 20 seconds into that file and lasts 20 seconds. Meter is still unchecked, so neither peak is assigned a note value.
File page: Borodin String Quartet No. 1, III. Scherzo. Prestissimo. Recording PD-author Musopen. Composition PD-old-auto-expired, death year 1887. Source notes on the file point at Musopen and at the Internet Archive Musopen collection.
Prestissimo BPM: quick answers
What BPM is prestissimo?
200 and above on Wikipedia, above 200 on Metronomus, 200 or more on Arabesque. The Lumen chapter and Cambridge give the words and no number we could extract.
How is it different from presto?
On the three charts that give both numbers, prestissimo starts where presto’s top end is, at 200. The Lumen chapter’s presto ends at 177 and does not number prestissimo. Presto’s measured example is on the tempo markings page.
Why is the clip under 200?
Because that is the interval the onset check kept returning. A chart floor is not a promise about one quartet’s scherzo. The note value is deliberately unnamed.
Is allegro prestissimo?
No. Allegro’s published bands on our Allegro page end at or before the presto neighborhood. Prestissimo is past presto on the charts that number both.
Limits
- 158 per minute is an interval, not a quarter-note claim. The meter was not verified.
- One quartet movement does not pull the chart floor down to 158. It shows a performance can sit elsewhere.
- Vocabulary.com’s prestissimo page did not yield a BPM we can quote. It is omitted.