A tempo

Bringing back the main tempo

On the page Tempo it says: music rarely stays strictly the same speed. Gradually getting faster is called accelerando, gradually getting slower ritardando. Both are strong means of expression: acceleration drives and intensifies, slowing down calms or announces an ending. At the end of many pieces there is a ritardando that prepares the close, like a train gently rolling into the station. Finer still is rubato, a free, light stretching and pressing of time.

At some point the piece has to find its way back to its original tempo. That is what “a tempo” says. The instruction applies until a new tempo marking comes.

The difference from “tempo primo” is important. A tempo means the tempo that applied immediately before. That can be the opening tempo, but need not be. “Tempo primo”, by contrast, explicitly demands the opening tempo of the piece, even if a quite different tempo has been introduced in between.

The task for the player

The difficulty lies in the return: after a ritardando the tempo should be exactly where it was before, neither faster nor slower. The Tempo page describes what the metronome is for: it mercilessly uncovers where you unconsciously get faster or slower. When practising a piece, you can set the metronome to the main tempo, play the passage with “rit.” without the metronome and check at the “a tempo” whether you land in the same beat again.

A tempo in the score

Four sheets from the archive show the instruction. The order is always the same: first a slowing down, then “a tempo”.

Guitar

• Etüde Nr. 7 Matteo Carcassi, op. 60 No. 7 · guitar · 2 pages

  “poco riten.” is written above bar 8, in bar 9 a new section begins with “a tempo” above the start of the system. The study begins with “Allegro”.

• Etüde Nr. 13 Matteo Carcassi, op. 60 No. 13 · guitar · 2 pages

  On the first page “rall.” is written below the staff, followed above the notes by “a Tempo.”

Voice and piano

• Der Musensohn Franz Schubert, D. 764 · voice and piano, with chords for guitar · 4 pages

  On page 3 “rit.” appears in bold italics above bar 65, in the following bar “a tempo” in bold, both above the vocal part and above the piano.

Orchestra

• Sinfonie Nr. 9 e-Moll Antonín Dvořák · score · 18 pages

  On PDF page 18 in the flute part “rit.” is written above the first and “a tempo” above the second bar of the system. After that follow “Solo” and later “Molto Adagio”.

In the Carcassi study the “a tempo” appears at a clear structural point: the section before it ends with a double barline, and with bar 9 a new part begins. In Schubert and Dvořák the “a tempo” follows directly on the slowing down in the neighbouring bar.

Common mistakes

• Reading “a tempo” as “fast”: It does not mean faster, but back to the main tempo.
• Returning too early or too late: The “a tempo” applies from the bar above which it is written.
• Not checking the return: After a ritardando you easily land in the wrong tempo. The metronome shows it.