Vivace

Lively, but not at the limit

The page Tempo describes Vivace as “lively”, the page Tools as “vivacious” and gives 156 to 176 beats per minute. Even there it is striking how elastic the words are: Allegro goes up to 156, Presto begins at 168. The ranges overlap. A word like Vivace describes a character as well as a speed, namely agility and verve.

The page on tempo reminds us that these words leave the performer room. Since the invention of the metronome, a tempo can also be fixed unambiguously, and the number explains how fast the basic beats follow one another. Which note value carries the beat is decided by the lower number of the time signature: in 4/4 the quarter note, in 6/8 the dotted quarter note.

Vivace in the score

In the Maikstrings sheet music archive the marking appears in five sheets above or beside the first system. Three of them say only “Vivace”, two “Allegro vivace”. The last piece shows that the words are often combined: “Allegro vivace” means lively fast, so a mixture of both terms.

Guitar

• Etüde Nr. 10 („Caprice“) Mauro Giuliani, op. 100 No. 10 · guitar · 2 pages

  “Vivace.” is printed to the left of the first system, preceded by the heading “No. 10. Caprice”. The time signature is 2/4, and there are chord symbols such as Em and C above the bars.

• Krakowiak Nr. 40 Felix Horetzky · guitar · 1 page

  “VIVACE” is printed in italics under the number 40 before the first system, the time signature is 2/4. The krakowiak is a Polish dance.

Piano

• Achttaktige Übung Nr. 4 Carl Czerny, op. 821 No. 4 · piano · 1 page

  “Vivace” is printed in bold above the first bar of the right hand, the time signature is 6/8. The left hand begins with “p dolce”.

• Achttaktige Übung Nr. 7 Carl Czerny, op. 821 No. 7 · piano · 1 page

  Here it says “Allegro vivace”, so lively fast, above the system.

• Le Courant limpide Friedrich Burgmüller · piano · 1 page

  “Allegro vivace” is written at the top left above the system. In the first bars follow “pp mormorando”, “cresc.” and “dim.”.

Practising at this tempo

The most common mistake, according to the Tools page, is to begin at once at performance tempo. Start instead at a tempo at which the passage sits cleanly. As soon as it runs comfortably, raise the tempo by four to six bpm and repeat. Two short sessions of fifteen minutes a day help more, according to the page, than one hour of frustrated approach. For a Vivace piece that means: set yourself a number in the stated range as a target and feel your way towards it.

Common mistakes

• Reading the word as an exact number: Vivace is a range, not a number. A metronome number in the score takes precedence over the word.
• Equating Vivace with Allegro: The two ranges overlap, but Vivace begins where Allegro ends according to this table.
• Starting too fast: If you play at the target tempo right away, you practise the mistakes in.