attacca

Attacca (Italian for "attack" or "go on") eliminates the conventional pause between movements, creating continuity and dramatic momentum. When a composer writes "attacca" at the end of a movement, performers must transition directly into the next movement without the customary silence that typically separates movements — and the audience should not applaud between them. Beethoven was a pioneer of the attacca transition, most famously in his Fifth Symphony where the third movement flows directly into the triumphant fourth movement finale through a breathtaking bridge passage. This moment — emerging from darkness into blazing C major — is one of the most dramatic transitions in all of music. Other celebrated uses include Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and Schumann's Piano Concerto, both of which link movements seamlessly. In contemporary music, multi-movement works played attacca throughout have become increasingly common.