Tempo

What it is

Tempo is the speed at which music proceeds: how fast the underlying pulse moves. A metronome makes this easier to work on alone. See the notation section for everything related.

The Italian word means time. In musical usage it refers specifically to rate of pulse.

How it is indicated

Three ways, often in combination.

An Italian term. Allegro, adagio, andante and the rest. These indicate character as well as approximate speed.

A metronome marking. A note value equated to a number of beats per minute, such as a quarter note equals 120.

A descriptive phrase in the composer's own language. Many composers from the nineteenth century onward wrote tempo instructions in German, French or English rather than Italian, often with more specific character description.

Where all three appear, they should agree. Where they do not, the character marking usually carries more weight than the number.

Metronome markings are guides

Worth stating clearly.

A metronome marking looks precise and is not. Several factors mean the printed number is rarely followed exactly.

Many were added by editors, not composers, particularly in older repertoire.

Some composers' own markings are disputed. Beethoven's metronome marks are famously fast and there is long-standing debate about whether his metronome was faulty, whether he meant something different, or whether performers have simply drifted slower.

Halls differ. A reverberant acoustic blurs fast music and generally demands a slightly slower tempo.

Instruments differ. A period instrument speaks differently from a modern one.

Editions differ. The same work may carry different metronome marks in different editions.

The practical approach: treat the marking as the composer's intention about character and approximate speed, and choose a tempo that serves the music in the actual circumstances.

Choosing a tempo

Several constraints interact.

Clarity. The passagework must be audible. A tempo at which notes blur is too fast regardless of the marking.

Character. The tempo must support what the music is trying to be. An allegro that sounds laboured is too slow even at the marked speed.

The hall. Reverberation blurs fast music.

The player. A tempo that cannot be executed cleanly is the wrong tempo, and choosing one beyond your control is a poor decision rather than an ambitious one.

The ensemble. In a group, the tempo must work for everyone.

The style. Baroque tempos are generally more moderate than Romantic ones for equivalent markings.

Holding it

A separate skill from choosing it.

Tempo drifts. Fast movements accelerate, slow movements sag, and moderate ones can do either.

The causes are physical and psychological: energy accumulates in fast passages, difficult passages slow, and performance adrenaline pushes everything.

The remedies:

Metronome practice, regularly, not just when learning.

Internal subdivision. Feeling the smaller units against the beat.

Recording and checking. Comparing the tempo at the start and end of a movement reveals drift that is invisible while playing.

Identifying drift points. Most movements have specific places where tempo slips, usually a technically hard passage or an emotionally intense one. Knowing where they are allows deliberate correction.

Tempo relationships

In multi-movement works and in movements with sections, the tempos relate to each other.

A slow movement's tempo relative to the fast movements around it shapes the work's proportions. Choosing them independently can leave a piece unbalanced.

Some composers specify relationships explicitly with metronome equivalences at section changes.

Terms that modify tempo

Piu mosso, more motion, faster. Meno mosso, less motion, slower. Doppio movimento, double speed. Tempo giusto, in strict time. Tempo comodo, at a comfortable tempo. Tempo primo, the original tempo. L'istesso tempo, the same tempo, across a metre change.

How it is taught

From the first lessons, as the pulse a student learns to feel and hold.

Metronome use is taught early and resisted by most students, which is unfortunate because it is the most reliable tool available for the single most common musical fault.

The refinement, later, is that tempo is an interpretive choice within constraints rather than a number to be obeyed, and that choosing well requires understanding what the music needs rather than what the page says.

The drift audit

Worth doing on any movement being prepared for performance.

Record it. Note the tempo of the first eight bars and the last eight. Then find the tempo at three or four points in between.

Most players find specific places where tempo shifts, and they are predictable: technically hard passages slow, energetic passages accelerate, long notes stretch.

Knowing where your own drift points are makes them correctable. Without the audit, the drift is invisible while playing and obvious to everyone listening.

Metronome practice, and the resistance to it

Students dislike the metronome and use it less than they should.

The objection is usually that it feels mechanical and inhibits expression. That is true while using it and false as a general claim: a player with a secure internal pulse can be expressively flexible, and a player without one cannot.

Rubato requires a stable tempo to be flexible around. Without it, flexibility is just unsteadiness.

The productive use is not playing entire pieces with a metronome but checking: set it, play eight bars, see whether you match. Then turn it off and play, then check again.

There is a limit to what reading can fix. To have someone check your reading and notation directly, book a no-commitment evaluation lesson. Private and group violin lessons in Cumming, Sugar Hill, Dunwoody and Kennesaw, or call 470-789-2422.