musical concept indicating to the speed of interpretation From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Beats per minute" redirects here. For the rate of heart beats, see Heart rate.
Tempo (Italian for 'time' from the Latin tempus[1]) is the speed of a song or piece of music. It is measured in beats per minute, or BPM. For example, if a song has 4 beats per bar at 100 BPM, there will be 25 bars per minute.
L'istesso tempo or Lo stesso tempo – at the same speed
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 semplice – simple, regular speed, plainly
alla – in the manner or style of, as in:
alla breve – in short style,
alla marcia – in the style of a march[3] (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)[4]
alla turca – in the Turkish style, that is, in imitation of Turkish military music (Janizary 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[5]
ben – well, as in ben marcato (well marked or accented)