Musical tempos: names, terms

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Every professional musician knows about the existence of notes of different duration - half notes, eighth notes, etc. But if you ask someone how long each of them should sound, the answer will be ambiguous. After all, the sound of the same quarter note in different works will differ in duration. Therefore, although the duration of the notes is related to time, it is unrealistic to determine the length of the entire work by them. It's like trying to measure time with steps.

Music tempo

What to do, and how to correctly determine the speed of the sound of music? How fast does the internal biological pendulum, located inside each of us, need to work in beating strong beats? There is an answer to this question, because in this case we will talk about musical tempos.

Tempo means "time" in Italian. Literally, the term means the speed of the sound of a piece of music, which is measured by the number of beats per minute. But the main task of the musical tempo is to convey to the listener the nature and emotions of creation.composer.

How's the pace?

To simple amateur music listeners, the main differences in music sound like fast or slow. Professional musicians use special terms coined in Italy. There are many such terms, but we will consider the most widely used ones. It is worth noting that when it comes to musical tempo, it is not a certain number of beats that is mainly taken into account (although this is also important), but a character that carries the corresponding emotions.

Tempo name	Emotional tone, character	Number of metronome beats
Grave	very slow, hard, solemn	40-48
Largo	very slow, wide	44-52
Adagio	calm, slowly	48-56
Lento	quietly, slowly, drawlingly, faster than largo	50-58
Andante	temperately, walking	58-72
Andantino	a little faster than Andante	72-88
Moderato	very moderate	80-96
Allegretto	middle between Allegro and Andante	92-108
Allegro	fun, fast	120-144
Animato	excited	152-176
Presto	quickly	184-200
Prestissimo	fastest	192-200

As we can see from the table, the slowest musical tempo is Grave, which means that the piece must be played not just slowly, but heavily and solemnly. Here it is worth noting the relationship between the values of tempo and musical decorations (melismas). In this case, the musical term Grave also denotes the “seriousness” of the performance, while Largo and Adagio, similar in number of strokes, require the performer to improvise in decoration.

Sometimes, at a given Grave tempo, there may be an indication near individual single notes of Adagio. According to the logic of things, changing the tempo in a solemn, serious part (overture, for example) is impossible. In this case, the adagio indicates the possibility of ornamenting this section of the work. From this came the sayings about the masters of improvisation, who were called "good performers of the adagio." This term meant that the musician knew how to apply ornamentation while playing.

Metronome

This is an unusual name for an instrument that can beat certain pieces of time with blows, thanks to which they determine the tempo in music. The metronome is translated from Greek as "the power of the law." The classic device is a wooden pyramid, in the center of which a pendulum moves. It also has a scale with numbers. They mean the number of beats per minute of time. For example, Presto's fast music tempo is 184-200 clicks. Each of these beats has a strong share of the measure. There are alsoelectronic metronomes, as well as mobile applications for smartphones, by installing which you can set the desired tempo directly from your phone.

Be careful when playing with a metronome. After all, music should be alive and its sound can hardly be called solid mechanics. Basically, a metronome is used to play technical pieces: etudes, scales, arpeggios.

How do different paces affect the human body?

In an Italian university, Dr. Luciano Bernardi conducted an interesting experiment. It was based on the task of tracing the influence of different musical tempos on the human body. 24 people were selected to participate, half of which were professional musicians, and the other half were ordinary music lovers.

Measurements were made before the start of the experiment:

• blood pressure;
• respiratory rates;
• heart rate;
• high and low heart rate variability.

After that, the subjects were allowed to listen to musical passages of different duration (2-4 minutes) and style with short pauses between them.

What was the result of the experiment?

The results of the experiment showed that all organic indicators increased during the sounding of fast tempos of musical works. Moreover, the respiratory rate of musicians was higher than that of ordinary listeners. It is interesting that this phenomenon is due not to the individual preferences of each of the participants, but to the rhythmicpattern and tempo of the work itself.

According to the doctor and his assistants, the alternation of fast and slow musical tempos can immerse listeners into a state of deep relaxation, as well as improve the functioning of the cardiovascular system.

Electronic music and its tempos

Classics are eternal… So the great composer Paganini once said. Of course, classical music has its fans. But it was replaced by new styles with a radically fresh sound. These include electronic music.

For writing electronic works, various equipment is used, not much similar to a harpsichord or a violin. Basically, these are computers, synthesizers and other fashionable novelties. Consider the most popular musical styles.

Breaks

This is not just a style, but a whole subculture. It originated at the time of the popularity of the Winstons, which during the game for the first time used a broken, so-called "drum loop" - not one drum sound, but whole small passages consisting of several measures. Later, such motives became the basis of the breakbeat. They often sound in the drum'n'bass style. In the breaks, they have already changed significantly, but the broken rhythm remains. True, it sounds at a more moderate musical tempo with a beat frequency of 120-130.

Electro

Electronic style has its roots in hip-hop culture. Formed under the powerful influence of funk and Kraftwerk. The direction is distinguished by a pronounced "computer"sound. There are practically no natural sounds in such music. Even the vocal parts or the voices of nature are modified beyond recognition with the help of various effects. The main theme of electro composers is robots, technological innovations, nuclear explosions, etc. The tempo is used in 125 beats and above.

Techno

Founded in the 80s of the 20th century in Detroit. After a short time, the style was picked up by DJs in Europe. If in America the direction was more of an underground character, then in the UK it burst out like an avalanche. Mechanical rhythms, artificial sound, repeated repetition of musical phrases - all this characterizes the techno style. The tempo is 135-145 beats per minute.

Once again about the main thing

Many musicians at different times liked to experiment with musical directions and their tempos. For orientation in time space at the time of playing a musical instrument, a metronome is used. What is true, this is very relative, because music, although closely related to mathematics, is still distinguished by the presence of a soul. And the soul, in turn, depends on the presentation of the musician. So experiment, feel and enjoy the art.