Why are tempo markings written in italian

Musically, a performer may want to slightly speed up in one small section and then immediately pull the tempo back down to a slower pace. This can be a continual process throughout a piece of music making the performer feel as though they are on a little tempo roller coaster ride.

This means that tempos have a varying range. There is not an exact tempo set for each tempo marking. To help you decide just how fast a piece should go after seeing the tempo marking allegro , try playing around with your metronome somewhere in the range. For one piece, beats per minute on your metronome may be perfect. For other pieces, maybe is more ideal. It all depends on what is appropriate for the style of the piece to retain its full character.

There is no better way to really destroy a good piece music than to play it way to fast or way to slow. A kind of musical intuition will be gained through a lot of experience in playing music of varying styles and tempos and by listening to a large amount of music. Have no fear, you will eventually be able to make decisions on your own as to what an appropriate tempo is and is not for each piece.

Tempo markings in music are helpful tools for helping us have an idea of how fast or slow to play the music. Keep in mind that this is only a starting point. A metronome is a device that produces a sound at regular intervals. Musicians use metronomes to practice playing at different tempos. Beethoven was the first composer to use the metronome, and in published BPM tempo indications for all of his symphonies. Early metronomes were rather inconsistent, but modern electronics make BPM markings extremely precise.

Musical pieces do not always 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 this period was when tempo indications were first used extensively and codified.

Before the metronome, words were the only way to describe the tempo of a composition. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. MattPutnam MattPutnam Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. Email Required, but never shown. Featured on Meta. Now live: A fully responsive profile. Version labels for answers.

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