Stretto
DEFINITION
In a fugue, that situation in which the subject and answer overlap one another, or when two subjects enter in close succession. Term sometimes used to indicate a quickening of tempo.Tight, narrow; i.e., faster or hastening ahead; also, a passage in a fugue in which the contrapuntal texture is denser, with close overlapping entries of the subject in different voices; by extension, similar closely imitative passages in other compositions.