TEMPO

Tempo is an Italian word which comes from the Latin tempus which means time.
In order to understand these tempos (some people say tempi for the plural), we’ll refer to the metronome and how many beats per minute each tempo is. To review the metronome, see “The Metronome (or: The Torture Device)” on page 152. Most metronomes have these markings listed somewhere on them.
Here are the most common tempos, from slowest to fastest:





TEMPO NAME BEATS PER MINUTE

Largo 40-60
Larghetto 60-66
Adagio 66-76
Andante 76-108
Moderato 108-120
Allegro 120-168
Presto 168-200
Prestissimo 200-208



Tempo-related Terms

There are other terms that affect the tempo of a piece. They are:
accelerando (accel.) = speed up gradually.
allargando (allarg.) = slow down and grow louder.
ritardando (rit.) = slow down gradually.
rallentando (rall.) = slow down gradually.