Tempo

Updated on Dec 13, 2023

Edit

Comment

In musical terminology, tempo [ˈtɛmpo] ("time" in Italian; plural: tempi [ˈtɛmpi]) is the speed or pace of a given piece or subsection thereof, how fast or slow. Tempo is related to meter and is usually measured by beats per minute, with the beats being a division of the measures, though tempo is often indicated by terms which have acquired standard ranges of beats per minute or assumed by convention without indication. Tempo may be separated from articulation, or articulation may be indicated along with tempo, and tempo contributes to the overall texture. While the ability to hold a steady tempo is a desirable skill, tempo is changeable, and often indicated by a conductor or drummer. While practicing, an electronic or mechanical device, a metronome, may indicate the tempo, as one usually works one's way up to being able to perform at the proper tempo. In other words, it is the speed at which a passage of music is or should be played.

Measuring tempo

A piece of music's tempo is typically written at the start of the score, and in modern Western music is usually indicated in beats per minute (bpm). This means that a particular note value (for example, a quarter note, or crotchet) is specified as the beat, and that the amount of time between successive beats is a specified fraction of a minute. The greater the number of beats per minute, the smaller the amount of time between successive beats, and thus faster a piece must be played. For example, a tempo of 60 beats per minute signifies one beat per second, while a tempo of 120 beats per minute is twice as rapid, signifying one beat every 0.5 seconds. Mathematical tempo markings of this kind became increasingly popular during the first half of the 19th century, after the metronome had been invented by Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, although early metronomes were somewhat inconsistent. Beethoven was one of the first composers to use the metronome; in the 1810s he published metronomic indications for the eight symphonies he had composed up to that time.

With the advent of modern electronics, bpm became an extremely precise measure. Music sequencers use the bpm system to denote tempo.

Instead of beats per minute, some 20th-century composers (e.g., Béla Bartók, Alberto Ginastera, and John Cage) specify the total playing time for a piece, from which the performer can derive tempo.

Tempo is as crucial in contemporary music as it is in classical. In electronic dance music, accurate knowledge of a tune's bpm is important to DJs for the purposes of beatmatching.

Musical vocabulary for tempo

Some musical pieces do not have a mathematical time indication. In classical music it is customary to describe the tempo of a piece by one or more words. Most of these words are Italian, because many of the most important composers of the 17th century were Italian, and it was during this period that tempo indications were first used extensively and codified.

Before the metronome, it was difficult to specify the tempo of a composition; attempts were made using pendulums or the human pulse. Yet, after the metronome's invention, musicians continued to use these words, often additionally indicating the mood of the piece. This blurred the traditional distinction between tempo and mood indicators. For example, presto and allegro both indicate a speedy execution (presto being faster), but allegro also connotes joy (from its original meaning in Italian). Presto, on the other hand, simply indicates speed. Additional Italian words also indicate tempo and mood. For example, the "agitato" in the Allegro agitato of the last movement of George Gershwin's piano concerto in F has both a tempo indication (undoubtedly faster than a usual Allegro) and a mood indication ("agitated").

Understood tempo

In some cases (quite often up to the end of the Baroque period), the conventions that governed musical composition were so strong that composers didn't need to indicate tempo. For example, the first movement of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 has no tempo or mood indication whatsoever. To provide movement names, publishers of recordings resort to ad hoc measures, for instance marking the Brandenburg movement "Allegro", "(Allegro)", "(Without indication)", and so on.

In Renaissance music, performers understood most music to flow at a tempo defined by the tactus (roughly the rate of the human heartbeat). The mensural time signature indicated which note value corresponded to the tactus.

Often a particular musical form or genre implies its own tempo, so composers need place no further explanation in the score. Thus, musicians expect a minuet to be at a fairly stately tempo, slower than a Viennese waltz; a perpetuum mobile quite fast, and so on. Genres imply tempos. Thus, Ludwig van Beethoven wrote "In tempo d'un Menuetto" over the first movement of his Piano Sonata Op. 54, though that movement is not a minuet. Popular music charts use terms such as bossa nova, ballad, and Latin rock in much the same way.

Note that not only did tempi change over historical time and even in different places, but sometimes even the ordering of terms changed. For example, a modern largo is slower than an adagio, but in the Baroque period it was faster.

Beats per minute

Beats per minute (bpm) is a unit typically used as a measure of tempo in music and heart rate. The bpm tempo of a piece of music is conventionally shown in its score as a metronome mark, as illustrated to the right. This indicates that every one minute there should be 120 beats (or crotchets). In simple time signatures, it is conventional to show the tempo in terms of the note duration on the bottom. So a 4
4 would show a crotchet (or quarter note), as shown to the right, while a 2
2 would show a minim (or half note).

In compound time signatures, the beat consists of three note durations (so there are 3 quavers (eighth notes) per beat in a 6
8 time signature), so a dotted form of the next note duration up is used. The most common compound signatures: 6
8, 9
8, and 12
8, therefore use a dotted crotchet to indicate their bpm.

Exotic time and particularly slow time signatures may indicate their bpm tempo using other note durations. bpm became common terminology in disco because of its usefulness to DJs, and remain important in the same genre and other dance music.

In this context the beats measured are either quarter notes in the time signature (sometimes ambiguously called down-beats), or drum beats (typically bass-drum or another functionally similar synthesized sound), whichever is more frequent. Higher bpm values are therefore achievable by increasing the number of drum beats, without increasing the tempo of the music. House music is faster around 120–128 bpm (from regular house music to UK garage), trance music ranges from 125 to 150 bpm, and drum and bass generally ranges between 150–180 bpm. Psytrance is almost exclusively produced at 145 bpm, whereas Gabber can exceed 180–220 bpm. Speedcore can exceed 200 -1000+ bpm.

Extreme tempi

More extreme tempi are achievable at the same underlying tempo with very fast drum patterns, often expressed as drum rolls. Such compositions often exhibit a much slower underlying tempo, but may increase the tempo by adding additional percussive beats. Extreme music subgenres such as speedcore and grindcore often strive to reach unusually fast tempi. The use of extreme tempo was very common in the fast bebop jazz from the 1940s and 1950s. A common jazz tune such as "Cherokee" was often performed at quarter note equal to or sometimes exceeding 368 bpm. Some of Charlie Parker's famous tunes ("Bebop", "Shaw Nuff") have been performed at 380 bpm plus. John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" was performed at 374 bpm.

Beatmatching

Beatmatching is a technique DJs use that involves speeding up or slowing down a record to match the tempo of a previous track so both can be seamlessly mixed.

DJs often beatmatch the underlying tempos of recordings, rather than their strict bpm value suggested by the kick drum, particularly when dealing with high tempo tracks. A 240 bpm track, for example, matches the beat of a 120 bpm track without slowing down or speeding up, because both have an underlying tempo of 120 quarter notes per minute. Thus, some soul music (around 75–90 bpm) mixes well with a drum and bass beat (from 150–185 bpm).

When speeding up or slowing down a record on a turntable, the pitch and tempo of a track are linked: spinning a disc 10% faster makes both pitch and tempo 10% higher. Software processing to change the pitch without changing the tempo, or vice versa, is called time-stretching or pitch-shifting. While it works fairly well for small adjustments (± 20%), the result can be noisy and unmusical for larger changes.

Measures per minute

The speed of a piece of music can also be gauged according to measures per minute (mpm) or bars per minute, the number of measures of the piece performed in one minute. This measure is commonly used in ballroom dance music.

Italian tempo markings

The definitions of the Italian tempo markings mentioned in this section can be found in the Harvard Dictionary of Music and/or the online Italian-English dictionary, both of which are listed in Sources.

Basic tempo markings

By adding an -issimo ending, the word is amplified. By adding an -ino or -etto ending, the word is diminished. The beats per minute (bpm) values are rough approximations, and the correspondence is neither universal across time or space. One striking example is that Allegretto hastened as a tempo from the 18th to the 19th century: originally it was just above Andante, instead of just below Allegro as it is now.

From slowest to fastest:

Larghissimo – very, very slow (24 bpm (beats per minute in a 4
4 time) and under)

Grave – very slow (25–45 bpm)

Largo – broadly (40–60 bpm)

Lento – slowly (45–60 bpm)

Larghetto – rather broadly (60–66 bpm)

Adagio – slow and stately (literally, "at ease") (66–76 bpm)

Adagietto – slower than andante (72–76 bpm)

Andante – at a walking pace (76–108 bpm)

Andantino – slightly faster than Andante (although in some cases it can be taken to mean slightly slower than andante) (80–108 bpm)

Marcia moderato – moderately, in the manner of a march (83–85 bpm)

Andante moderato – between andante and moderato (thus the name andante moderato) (92–112 bpm)

Moderato – moderately (108–120 bpm)

Allegretto – by the mid 19th century, moderately fast (112–120 bpm); see paragraph above for earlier usage

Allegro moderato – close to but not quite allegro (116–120 bpm)

Allegro – fast, quickly, and bright (120–168 bpm) (molto allegro is slightly faster than allegro, but always in its range)

Vivace – lively and fast (168–176 bpm)

Vivacissimo – very fast and lively (172–176 bpm)

Allegrissimo or Allegro vivace – very fast (172–176 bpm)

Presto – very, very fast (168–200 bpm)

Prestissimo – even faster than Presto (200 bpm and over)

Terms for tempo change:

Rallentando – gradually slowing down

Ritardando – gradually slowing down (but not as much as rallentando)

Ritenuto – immediately slowing down

Stringendo – gradually speeding up (slowly)

Accelerando – gradually speeding up (quickly)

Additional terms

A piacere – the performer may use his or her own discretion with regard to tempo and rhythm; literally "at pleasure"

A tempo – resume previous tempo

L'istesso, L'istesso tempo, or Lo stesso tempo – at the same speed; L'istesso is used when the actual speed of the music has not changed, despite apparent signals to the contrary, such as changes in time signature or note length (half notes in 4
4 could change to whole notes in 2
2, and they would all have the same duration)

Tempo comodo – at a comfortable (normal) speed

Tempo di... – the speed of a ... (such as Tempo di valse (speed of a waltz, . ≈ 60 bpm), Tempo di marcia (speed of a march, ≈ 120 bpm))

Tempo giusto – at a consistent speed, at the 'right' speed, in strict tempo

Tempo semplice – simple, regular speed, plainly

Tempo primo – resume the original (first) tempo

Common qualifiers

alla – in the manner or style of, as in:

alla breve – in short style, i.e., duple time, with the half note (minim) rather than the quarter note (crotchet) as the beat; cut time; 2
2 instead of 4
4; often marked as (see Time signature)

alla marcia – in the manner of a march (e.g., Beethoven, op. 101)

all' ongarese – in Hungarian style

alla (danza) tedesca – in the style of the Ländler (c. 1800), and similar dances in rather quick triple meter (see Beethoven, op. 79, op. 130)

alla turca – in the Turkish style, that is, in imitation of Turkish military music (Janissary Music), which became popular in Europe in the late 18th century (e.g., Mozart, K. 331, K. 384)

alla zingarese – in the style of Gypsy music

assai – very much, as in allegro assai, quite fast

ben – well, as in ben marcato (well marked or accented)

con – with, as in:

con bravura – with skill

con brio – with vigor and spirit

con dolcezza – with softness; delicately

con fuoco – with fire

con moto – with motion

deciso – decidedly, decisively

fugato – in fugal style, usually part of a non-fugal composition; such passages often occur in the development sections of symphonies, sonatas, and quartets

in modo – in the manner of, in the style of: in modo napolitano (in Neapolitan style), in modo di marcia funebre (in the manner of a funeral march)

meno – less, as in meno mosso (less quickly)

appena – almost none, as in appena forte (almost not at all loud)

misterioso – mysterious

molto – much, very, as in molto allegro (very quick) or molto adagio (very slow)

non troppo – not too much, e.g. allegro non troppo (or allegro ma non troppo) means "fast, but not too much"

non tanto – not so much

più – more, as in più allegro (more quickly); used as a relative indication when the tempo changes

piuttosto – rather, as in piuttosto allegro (rather quick)

poco – slightly, little, as in Poco adagio

poco a poco – little by little

polacca – generic name for Polish dances, usually the polonaise, as in tempo di polacca; note, however, that the "Polacca" in Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 shows little resemblance to the polonaise

primo – principal or early, as in tempo primo, the same tempo as at the beginning

quasi – almost, nearly, as if (such as Più allegro quasi presto, "faster, as if presto")

senza – without, as in senza interruzione (without interruption or pause), senza tempo or senza misura (without strict measure)

sostenuto – sustained, prolonged

subito – suddenly

Note: In addition to the common allegretto, composers freely apply Italian diminutive and superlative suffixes to various tempo indications: andantino, larghetto, adagietto, and larghissimo.

Mood markings with a tempo connotation

Some markings that primarily mark a mood (or character) also have a tempo connotation:

Affettuoso – with feeling/emotion

Agitato – agitated, with implied quickness

Appassionato – to play passionately

Animato – animatedly, lively

Brillante – sparkling, glittering, as in Allegro brillante, Rondo brillante, or Variations brillantes; became fashionable in titles for virtuoso pieces

Bravura – bravely; a brilliant and indulgent demonstration of skill

Cantabile – in singing style (lyrical and flowing)

Calando – dying away, slowing, diminishing

Caloroso - heart-warming

Cataclismico – very loud, short

Dolce – sweetly

Dolcissimo – very sweetly and delicately

Dolente - sadly, sorrowfully

Energico – energetic, strong, forceful

Eroico – heroically

Espressivo – expressively

Furioso – to play in an angry or furious manner

Giocoso – merrily, funny

Gioioso – joyfully

Grandioso – magnificently, grandly

Grazioso – gracefully

Incalzando – encouraging, building

Lacrimoso – tearfully, sadly

Lamentoso – lamenting, mournfully

Leggiero – to play lightly, or with light touch

Leggiadro – lightly and gracefully

Maestoso – majestic or stately (which generally indicates a solemn, slow march-like movement)

Malinconico – melancholic

Marcato – marching tempo, marked with emphasis

Marziale – in a march style, usually in simple, strongly marked rhythm and regular phrases

Mesto – sad, mournful

Misterioso – mystical, in a shady manner

Morendo – dying

Nobilmente – nobly (in a noble way)

Patetico – with great emotion

Pesante – heavily

Pomposo – dignified, in grand style

Saltando – jumpy, fast, and short

Scherzando – playfully

Smorzando – dying away, decreasing to nothing in both speed and dynamic

Sospirando – listless, with little energy; almost indifferent; as if sighing

Sostenuto – sustained, with a slowing of tempo

Spiccato – slow sautillé, with a bouncy manner

Tenerezza – tenderness

Tranquillamente – adverb of tranquillo, "calmly"

Trionfante – triumphantly

Vivace – lively and fast, over 140 bpm (which generally indicates a fast movement)

Terms for change in tempo

Composers may use expressive marks to adjust the tempo:

Accelerando – speeding up (abbreviation: accel.)

Allargando – growing broader; decreasing tempo, usually near the end of a piece

Calando – going slower (and usually also softer)

Doppio movimento / doppio più mosso – double speed

Doppio più lento – half speed

Lentando – gradual slowing and softer

Meno mosso – less movement or slower

Mosso – movement, more lively, or quicker, much like più mosso, but not as extreme

Più mosso – more movement or faster

Precipitando – hurrying, going faster/forward

Rallentando – gradual slowing down (abbreviation: rall.)

Ritardando – slowing down gradually; also see rallentando and ritenuto (abbreviations: rit., ritard.)

Ritenuto – slightly slower, but achieved more immediately than ritardando or rallentando; a sudden decrease in tempo; temporarily holding back. (Note that the abbreviation for ritenuto can also be rit. Thus a more specific abbreviation is riten. Also sometimes ritenuto does not reflect a tempo change but a character change instead.)

Rubato – free adjustment of tempo for expressive purposes (literally "theft", so more strictly, take time from one beat to slow another)

Stretto – in faster tempo, often near the conclusion of a section. (Note that in fugal compositions, the term stretto refers to the imitation of the subject in close succession, before the subject is completed, and as such, suitable for the close of the fugue. Used in this context, the term is not necessarily related to tempo.)

Stringendo – pressing on faster (literally "tightening")

Tardando – slowing down gradually (same as ritardando)

While the base tempo indication (such as allegro) appears in large type above the staff, these adjustments typically appear below the staff or (in the case of keyboard instruments) in the middle of the grand staff.

They generally designate a gradual change in tempo; for immediate tempo shifts, composers normally just provide the designation for the new tempo. (Note, however, that when Più mosso or Meno mosso appears in large type above the staff, it functions as a new tempo, and thus implies an immediate change.) Several terms, e.g., assai, molto, poco, subito, control how large and how gradual a change should be (see common qualifiers).

After a tempo change, a composer may return to a previous tempo in two different ways:

a tempo – returns to the base tempo after an adjustment (e.g. ritardando ... a tempo undoes the effect of the ritardando).

Tempo primo or Tempo I^o – denotes an immediate return to the piece's original base tempo after a section in a different tempo (e.g. Allegro ... Lento ... Moderato ... Tempo I^o indicates a return to the Allegro). This indication often functions as a structural marker in pieces in binary form.

These terms also indicate an immediate, not a gradual, tempo change. Although they are Italian, composers typically use them even if they have written their initial tempo marking in some other language.

Tempo markings in other languages

Although Italian has been the prevalent language for tempo markings throughout most of classical music history, many composers have written tempo indications in their own language. This section lists tempo markings from in the Harvard Dictionary of Music or the online foreign language dictionaries listed in Sources.

French tempo markings

Several composers have written markings in French, among them baroque composers François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau as well as Claude Debussy, Olivier Messiaen, Maurice Ravel and Alexander Scriabin. Common tempo markings in French are:

Au mouvement – play the (first or main) tempo.

Grave – slowly and solemnly

Lent – slowly

Modéré – at a moderate tempo

Moins – less, as in Moins vite (less fast)

Rapide – fast

Très – very, as in Très vif (very lively)

Vif – lively

Vite – fast

Erik Satie was known to write extensive tempo (and character) markings by defining them in a poetical and literal way, as in his Gnossiennes.

German tempo markings

Many composers have used German tempo markings. Typical German tempo markings are:

Langsam – slowly

Lebhaft – lively (mood)

Mäßig – moderately

Rasch – quickly

Schnell – fast

Bewegt – animated, with motion

One of the first German composers to use tempo markings in his native language was Ludwig van Beethoven. The one using the most elaborate combined tempo and mood markings was probably Gustav Mahler. For example, the second movement of his Symphony No. 9 is marked Im Tempo eines gemächlichen Ländlers, etwas täppisch und sehr derb, indicating a slowish folk-dance-like movement, with some awkwardness and much vulgarity in the execution. Mahler would also sometimes combine German tempo markings with traditional Italian markings, as in the first movement of his sixth symphony, marked Allegro energico, ma non troppo. Heftig, aber markig (Energetically quick, but not too much. Violent, but vigorous).

English tempo markings

English indications, for example quickly, have also been used, by Benjamin Britten and Percy Grainger, among many others. In jazz and popular music charts, terms like "fast", "laid back", "steady rock", "medium", "medium-up", "ballad", "brisk", "up", "slowly", and similar style indications may appear.

Tom Lehrer's anthology Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer, uses fake English tempo markings to humorous effect. For example, Lehrer specifies that the song National Brotherhood Week should be played "fraternally," We Will All Go Together be played "eschatologically," and Masochism Tango be played "painstakingly."

Tempo markings as movement names and compositions with a tempo indicator name

Often, composers (or music publishers) name movements of compositions after their tempo (or mood) marking. For instance, the second movement of Samuel Barber's first String Quartet is an Adagio.

Some such movements may start to lead a life of their own, and become known with the tempo/mood marker name, for instance the string orchestra version of the second movement of Barber's first string quartet became known as Adagio for Strings. A similar example is the Adagietto from Mahler's Symphony No. 5.

Sometimes the link between a musical composition with a "tempo" name and a separate movement of a composition is less clear. For instance, Albinoni's Adagio is a 20th-century creative "reconstruction" based on an incomplete manuscript.

Some composers chose to include tempo indicators in the name of a separate composition, for instance Bartók in Allegro barbaro ("barbaric Allegro"), a single movement composition.

References

Tempo Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

Contents