Tempo Is Italian for Time
Tempo is the speed of a piece of music. Italian dominates musical vocabulary for a specific historical reason.
Tempo is the speed at which music is played, and by extension the pace of anything. Italian supplies almost all Western musical vocabulary because Italy dominated European music when the notation system was being standardised in the seventeenth century — composers everywhere adopted the terms of the leading tradition, and they stuck. A metronome gives tempo an exact number in beats per minute, but the traditional Italian words carry a character as well as a speed.
- Musical speed. *A brisk tempo.*
- Any pace. *The tempo of the game.*
- Italian — time. *Tempo.*
- Metronome — the measuring device. *A metronome.*
- Latin — *tempus*, time. *The root.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | tempo | The tempo. |
| Plural | tempos / tempi | Tempi. |
| Italian | tempo | Time. |
| Latin | tempus | Time. |
| Related | temporal | Temporal. |
- The conductor set a brisk tempo.Music.
- The tempo of the match rose.Sport.
- Tempo simply means time.Italian.
Italian tempo markings
- Largo — broadly, very slow
- Adagio — at ease, slow
- Andante — walking pace
- Allegro — cheerful, quick
- Presto — very fast, literally quickly
Italian *tempo*, time, from Latin *tempus*, time or a portion of time.
Why is musical vocabulary Italian?
Italy led European music when modern notation was being standardised in the seventeenth century, and composers elsewhere adopted its terms.
What does andante mean?
At a walking pace, from the Italian verb andare, to go. It sits between slow and moderate.