Tempo Markings

Table of Contents

Placement
Metronome Markings
Tables of Definitions

PLACEMENT

Terms are placed above the top staff, at the beginning of the piece or whenever there is a tempo change during the piece.

The first letter of the term should be vertically aligned with the time signature. If there is no time signature (this might be true in the middle of a piece), the frst letter should be aligned with the first notational element in the measure.

METRONOME MARKINGS

• The objective, precise metronome marking is usually supplemented by subjective descriptive words, usually in Italian, but sometimes in French, German or English. These terms are listed in Table 1.

• In addition, these descriptive terms can be made more specific by the use of qualifying words, such as non troppo ______ ("not too much _____"),
  con _______ ("with _____"). Table 2 defines these qualifiers.

• In the past, metronome marks were written in parentheses after the descriptive word(s), but now the parentheses are usually omitted.

• If the unit of time fluctuates, 2 different metronome marks may be given, with the second in parentheses. This happens most often in pieces with slow tempos.

• When there is a change in time signature and the new unit of time is twice as fast or slow as the previous unit, standard practice is to notate two small notes over the new time signature to show that the previous unit of time has the same duration as the new unit. These notes may be written with parentheses or without, and with the addition of small arrows or without.

• Engravers often acknowledge the difficulty of controlling a tempo exactly by inserting the word "about" or "ca." ("circa") in between the note and the metronome number, or by indicating a range of numbers instead of just one.

• Table 3 provides a more comprehensive list of tempo markings.

  
  
  

TABLE of BASIC TEMPO MARKINGS

Taken from Gardner Read's book, Music Notation, A Manual of Modern Practice

Italian Term																																																		English Definition																																																		Corresponding Metronome Marking
Larghissimo Adagissimo Lentissimo																																																		Extremely Slow																																																		40
Largo Adagio Lento																																																		Very slow																																																		40
Larghetto Adagietto																																																		Fairly slow																																																		40
Andante Andantino																																																		Moderately slow																																																		60
Moderato																																																		Moderately																																																		60
Allegretto																																																		Fairly fast																																																		60
Allegro																																																		Fast, Quick																																																		120
Vivace Vivo Presto																																																		Quite fast																																																		120
Allegrissimo Vivacissimo Prestissimo																																																		Very fast																																																		208

TABLE OF SPECIFIC TEMPO MARKINGS

Italian or French Term																				English Definition
accelerando																				Quickening gradually
alla breve																				Duple time with a half note as the unit (Cut time)
allargando																				Broadening
ancora																				Still more ____
a tempo																				Original speed
cedez																				Slight holding back of tempo
come prima																				As at first
come sopra																				As above
doppio movimento																				Twice as fast (usually occurs when Common time changes to Cut time)
l'istesso (lo stesso) tempo																				The same tempo; beat remains constant while the meter changes
meno mosso piu lento																				Less motion/slower
piu allegro piu animato piu mosso																				Faster
pressez																				quicken
rallentando																				Gradual slowing down
ritardando																				Gradual slowing down
ritenuto																				Sudden slowing down
rubato																				"Robbing" the time values by holding back or speeding up at will
stringendo																				Pressing forward
tempo giusto																				Strict tempo
tempo primo																				Original tempo
trattenuto																				Holding back, and sustained