Music and the Brain

Laurence O'Donnell

"Music is so naturally united with us that we cannot be free from it even if we so desired" (Boethius cited by Storr).

Music's interconnection with society can be seen throughout history. Every known culture
on the earth has music. Music seems to be one of the basic actions of humans. However, early music was not handed down from generation to generation or recorded. Hence, there is no official record of "prehistoric" music. Even so, there is evidence of prehistoric music from the findings of flutes carved from bones. The influence of music on society can be clearly seen from modern history. Music helped Thomas Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence. When he could not figure out the right wording for a certain part, he would play his violin to help him. The music helped him get the words from his brain onto the paper. Albert Einstein is recognized as one of the smartest men who has ever lived. A little known fact about Einstein is that when he was young he did extremely poor in school. His grade school teachers told his parents to take him out of school because he was "too stupid to learn" and it would be a waste of resources for the school to invest time and energy in his education. The school suggested that his parents get Albert an easy, manual labor job as soon as they could. His mother did not think that Albert was "stupid". Instead of following the school's advice, Albert's parents bought him a violin. Albert became good at the violin. Music was the key that helped Albert Einstein become one of the smartest men who has ever lived. Einstein himself says that the reason he was so smart is because he played the violin. He loved the music of Mozart and Bach the most. A friend of Einstein, G.J. Withrow, said that the way Einstein figured out his problems and equations was by improvising on the violin. Bodily Responses to Music In general, responses to music are able to be observed. It has been proven that music influences humans both in good and bad ways. These effects are instant and long lasting. Music is thought to link all of the emotional, spiritual, and physical elements of the universe. Music can also be used to change a person's mood, and has been found to cause like physical responses in many people simultaneously. Music also has the ability to strengthen or weaken emotions from a particular event such as a funeral. People perceive and respond to music in different ways. The level of musicianship of the performer and the listener as well as the manner in which a piece is performed affects the "experience" of music. An experienced and accomplished musician might hear and feel a

piece of music in a totally different way than a non-musician or beginner. This is why two accounts of the same piece of music can contradict themselves. Rhythm is also an important aspect of music to study when looking at responses to music. There are two responses to rhythm. These responses are hard to separate because they are related, and one of these responses cannot exist without the other. These responses are (1) the actual hearing of the rhythm and (2) the physical response to the rhythm. Rhythm organizes physical movements and is very much related to the human body. For example, the body contains rhythms in the heartbeat, while walking, during breathing, etc. Another example of how rhythm orders movement is an autistic boy who could not tie his shoes. He learned how on the second try when the task of tying his shoes was put to a song. The rhythm helped organize his physical movements in time. It cannot be proven that two people can feel the exact same thing from hearing a piece of music. For example, early missionaries to Africa thought that the nationals had bad rhythm. The missionaries said that when the nationals played on their drums it sounded like they were not beating in time. However, it was later discovered that the nationals were beating out complex polyrhythmic beats such as 2 against 3, 3 against 4, and 2 against 3 and 5, etc. These beats were too advanced for the missionaries to follow. Responses to music are easy to be detected in the human body. Classical music from the baroque period causes the heart beat and pulse rate to relax to the beat of the music. As the body becomes relaxed and alert, the mind is able to concentrate more easily. Furthermore, baroque music decreases blood pressure and enhances the ability to learn. Music affects the amplitude and frequency of brain waves, which can be measured by an electro-encephalogram. Music also affects breathing rate and electrical resistance of the skin. It has been observed to cause the pupils to dilate, increase blood pressure, and increase the heart rate. The Power of Music on Memory and Learning The power of music to affect memory is quite intriguing. Mozart's music and baroque music, with a 60 beats per minute beat pattern, activate the left and right brain. The simultaneous left and right brain action maximizes learning and retention of information. The information being studied activates the left brain while the music activates the right brain. Also, activities which engage both sides of the brain at the same time, such as playing an instrument or singing, causes the brain to be more capable of processing information. According to The Center for New Discoveries in Learning, learning potential can be increased a minimum of five times by using this 60 beats per minute music. For example, the ancient Greeks sang their dramas because they understood how music could help them remember more easily ). A renowned Bulgarian psychologist, Dr. George Lozanov, designed a way to teach foreign languages in a fraction of the normal learning time. Using his system, students could learn up to one half of the vocabulary and phrases for the whole school term (which amounts to almost 1,000 words or phrases) in one day. Along with this, the average retention rate of his students was 92%. Dr. Lozanov's system involved using certain classical music pieces from the baroque period which have around a 60 beats per minute pattern. He has proven

that foreign languages can be learned with 85-100% efficiency in only thirty days by using these baroque pieces. His students had a recall accuracy rate of almost 100% even after not reviewing the material for four years.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Georg Frederic Handel

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

In 1982, researchers from the University of North Texas performed a three-way test on postgraduate students to see if music could help in memorizing vocabulary words. The students were divided into three groups. Each group was given three tests - a pretest, a posttest, and a test a week after the first two tests. All of the tests were identical. Group 1 was read the words with Handel's Water Music in the background. They were also asked to imagine the words. Group 2 was read the same words also with Handel's Water Music in the background. Group 2 was not asked to imagine the words. Group 3 was only read the words, was not given any background music, and was also not asked to imagine the words. The results from the first two tests showed that groups 1 and 2 had much better scores than group 3. The results from the third test, a week later, showed that group 1 performed much better than groups 2 or 3. However, simply using music while learning does not absolutely guarantee recall but can possibly improve it. Background music in itself is not a part of the learning process, but it does enter into memory along with the information learned. Recall is better when the same music used for learning is used during recall. Also, tempo appears to be a key of music's effect on memory.

Play Handel's Water Music (Morning Has Broken)

One simple way students can improve test scores is by listening to certain types of music such as Mozart's Sonata for Two Piano's in D Major before taking a test. This type of music releases neurons in the brain which help the body to relax. The effectiveness of Mozart's sonatas can be seen by the results from an IQ test performed on three groups of college students. The first group listened to a Mozart sonata before taking the test. The second group listened to a relaxation tape before their test. The third group did not listen to anything before the test. The first group had the highest score with an average of 119. The second group ended up with an average of 111, and the third group had the lowest score with an average of 110.

William Balach, Kelly Bowman, and Lauri Mohler, all from Pennsylvania State University, studied the effects of music genre and tempo on memory retention. They had four groups learn vocabulary words using one of four instrumental pieces - slow classical, slow jazz, fast classical, and fast jazz. Each of the four groups was divided into smaller groups for the recall test. These sub groups used either the same (i.e. slow classical, slow classical) or different (i.e. slow jazz, fast classical) pieces when taking the recall test. The results did show a dependency on the music. Recall was better when the music was the same during learning and testing. These same researchers did another test which restricted the changes in the music to just tempo (i.e. slow to fast jazz) or just genre (i.e. slow jazz to slow classical). Surprisingly, the results showed that changing the genre had no effect on recall but changing the tempo decreased recall. Healthy and Not So Healthy Effects Many revealing scientific experiments, studies, and research projects have been performed to try and discover the extent of the power of music. Up until 1970, most of the research done on music had to do with studying the effects of the beat of the music. It was found that slow music could slow the heartbeat and the breathing rate as well as bring down blood pressure. Faster music was found to speed up these same body measurements. The key component of music that makes it beneficial is order. The order of the music from the baroque and classical periods causes the brain to respond in special ways. This order includes repetition and changes, certain patterns of rhythm, and pitch and mood contrasts. One key ingredient to the order of music from the baroque and classical periods is math. This is realized by the body and the human mind performs better when listening to this ordered music. One shining example of the power of order in music is King George I of England. King George had problems with memory loss and stress management. He read from the Bible the story of King Saul and recognized that Saul had experienced the same type of problems that he was experiencing. George recognized that Saul overcame his problems by using special music. With this story in mind King George asked George Frederick Handel to write some special music for him that would help him in the same way that music helped Saul. Handel wrote his Water Music for this purpose. Another key to the order in music is the music being the same and different. The brain works by looking at different pieces of information and deciding if they are different or the same. This is done in music of the baroque and classical periods by playing a theme and then repeating or changing the theme. The repetition is only done once. More than one repetition causes the music to become displeasing, and also causes a person to either enter a state of sub-conscious thinking or a state of anger. Dr. Ballam goes on to say that, "The human mind shuts down after three or four repetitions of a rhythm, or a melody, or a harmonic progression." Furthermore, excessive repetition causes people to release control of their thoughts. Rhythmic repetition is used by people who are trying to push certain ethics in their music. An Australian physician and psychiatrist, Dr. John Diamond, found a direct link between muscle strength/weakness and music. He discovered that all of the muscles in the entire body go weak when subjected to the "stopped anapestic beat" of music from hard rock musicians, including Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Queen, The Doors, Janis Joplin,

Bachman - Turner Overdrive, and The Band. Dr. Diamond found another effect of the anapestic beat. He called it a "switching" of the brain. Dr. Diamond said this switching occurs when the actual symmetry between both of the cerebral hemispheres is destroyed causing alarm in the body along with lessened work performance, learning and behavior problems in children, and a "general malaise in adults." In addition to harmful, irregular beats in rock music, shrill frequencies prove to also be harmful to the body. Bob Larson, a Christian minister and former rock musician, remembers that in the 70's teens would bring raw eggs to a rock concert and put them on the front of the stage. The eggs would be hard boiled by the music before the end of the concert and could be eaten. Dr. Earl W. Flosdorf and Dr. Leslie A. Chambers showed that proteins in a liquid medium were coagulated when subjected to piercing high-pitched sounds On Animals and Plants, Too! Tests on the effects of music on living organisms besides humans have shown that special pieces of music (including The Blue Danube) aid hens in laying more eggs. Music can also help cows to yield more milk. Researchers from Canada and the former Soviet Union found that wheat will grow faster when exposed to special ultrasonic and musical sounds. Rats were tested by psychologists to see how they would react to Bach's music and rock music. The rats were placed into two different boxes. Rock music was played in one of the boxes while Bach's music was played in the other box. The rats could choose to switch boxes through a tunnel that connected both boxes. Almost all of the rats chose to go into the box with the Bach music even after the type of music was switched from one box to the other.
Play Bach's Air on The G String Play Strauss' The Blue Danube

Research took a new avenue when in 1968 a college student, Dorthy Retallack, started researching the effects of music on plants. She took her focus off of studying the beat and put in on studying the different sounds of music. Retallack tested the effects of music on plant growth by using music styles including classical, jazz, pop, rock, acid rock, East Indian, and country. She found that the plants grew well for almost every type of music except rock and acid rock. Jazz, classical, and Ravi Shankar turned out to be the most helpful to the plants. However, the plants tested with the rock music withered and died. The acid rock music also had negative effects on the plant growth. Conclusions One cannot deny the power of music. High school students who study music have higher grade point averages that those who don't. These students also develop faster physically. Student listening skills are also improved through music education. The top three schools in America all place a great emphasis on music and the arts. Hungary, Japan, and the Netherlands, the top three academic countries in the world, all place a great emphasis on music education and participation in music. The top engineers from Silicon Valley are all musicians. Napoleon understood the enormous power of music. He summed it up by saying, "Give me control over he who shapes the music of a nation, and I care not who makes the laws" .

To Know More

Ballam, Michael. Music and the Mind (Documentation Related to Message). pp 1-8. Jourdain, Robert. Music, the Brain and Ecstasy. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc.,1997. Lundin, Robert W. An Objective Psychology of Music. Malabar: Robert E. Krieger Publishing Company, 1985. Neverman. "The Affects of Music on the Mind." 3 pp. On-line. Internet. 20 December 1999. Available WWW: http://www.powell.k12.ky.us/pchs/ publications/Affects_of_Music.html. Scarantino, Barbara Anne. Music Power Creative Living Through the Joys of Music. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1987. Storr, Anthony. Music and the Mind. New York: The Free Press, 1992. Weinberger, N.M. "Threads of Music in the Tapestry of Memory." MuSICA Research Notes 4.1 (Spring 1997): 3pp. On-line. Internet. 13 November 1999. Available WWW:http://musica.ps.uci.edu/mrn/V4I1S97.html#threads.

The Author
Laurence O'Donnell III is a musicist (he plays the bassoon) from Perth, Scotland. He has created a site named Music Power. This paper was produced as a result of his senior paper. Email: laurence@characterlink.net

Tempo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Beats per minute" redirects here. For the website formerly called One Thirty BPM, see Beats Per Minute (website). "Tempi" redirects here. For the Greek valley, see Tmpi. For the Greek municipality, see Tempi (municipality). For other uses, see Tempo (disambiguation).

The first two measures of Mozart's Sonata K. 331, which indicates the tempo as "Andante grazioso" and a modern editor's metronome marking: " = 120". Play (helpinfo)

In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for time, plural: tempi) is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of most musical compositions, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.

Measuring tempo

Electronic metronome, Wittner model

The tempo of a piece will typically be written at the start of a piece of music, and in modern Western music is usually indicated in beats per minute (BPM). This means that a particular note value (for example, a quarter note or crotchet) is specified as the beat, and the marking indicates that a certain number of these beats must be played per minute. The greater the tempo, the larger the number of beats that must be played in a minute is, and, therefore, the faster a piece must be played. Mathematical tempo markings of this kind became increasingly popular during the first half of the 19th century, after the metronome had been invented by Johann Nepomuk Mlzel, although early metronomes were somewhat inconsistent. Beethoven was the first composer to use the metronome, and in 1817 he published metronomic indications for his (then) eight symphonies. Some of these markings are today contentious, such as those on his "Hammerklavier" Sonata and Ninth Symphony, seeming to many to be almost impossibly fast, as is also the case for many of the works of Schumann.[1] With the advent of modern electronics, BPM became an extremely precise measure. Music sequencers use the BPM system to denote tempo. As an alternative to metronome markings, some 20th-century composers (such as Bla Bartk and John Cage) would give the total execution time of a piece, from which the proper tempo can be roughly derived. Tempo is as crucial in contemporary music as it is in classical. In electronic dance music, accurate knowledge of a tune's BPM is important toDJs for the purposes of beatmatching.

Musical vocabulary for tempo

A Seth Thomas model metronome

Some musical pieces do not 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. Yet after the metronome's invention, these words continued to be used, often additionally indicating the mood of the piece, thus blurring the traditional distinction between tempo and mood indicators. For example, prestoand allegro both indicate a speedy execution (presto being faster), but allegro also connotes joy (from its original meaning in Italian). Presto, on the other hand, indicates speed as such. Additional Italian words also indicate tempo and mood. For example, the "agitato" in the Allegro agitato of the last movement of George Gershwin's piano concerto in F has both a tempo indication (undoubtedly faster than a usual Allegro) and a mood indication ("agitated").

Understood tempo

In some cases (quite often up to the end of the Baroque period), conventions governing musical composition were so strong that no tempo had to be indicated. For example, the first movement of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 has no tempo or mood indication whatsoever. To provide movement names, publishers of recordings resort to ad hoc measures, for instance marking the Brandenburg movement "Allegro", "(Allegro)", "(Without indication)", and so on. In Renaissance music most music was understood to flow at a tempo defined by the tactus, roughly the rate of the human heartbeat. Which note value corresponded to the tactus was indicated by the mensural time signature. Often a particular musical form or genre implies its own tempo, so no further explanation is placed in the score. Thus musicians expect a minuet to be performed at a fairly stately tempo, slower than a Viennese waltz; a perpetuum mobile to be quite fast, and so on. Genres can be used to imply tempos; thus Ludwig van Beethoven wrote "In tempo d'un Menuetto" over the first movement of his Piano Sonata Op. 54, although that movement is not a minuet.Popular music charts use terms such as "bossa nova", "ballad", and "Latin rock" in much the same way. It is important to remember when interpreting these words that not only have tempos changed over historical time, and even in different places, but sometimes even the ordering of terms has changed. Thus a modern largo is slower than an adagio, but in the Baroque period it was faster.[2]

Beats per minute

BPM of 120

Beats per minute (BPM) is a unit typically used as a measure of tempo in music and heart rate. The BPM tempo of a piece of music is conventionally shown in its score as a metronome mark, as illustrated to the right. This indicates that there should be 120 crotchet beats (quarter notes) per minute. In simple time signatures it is conventional to show the tempo in terms of the note duration on the bottom. So a 4/4 would show a crotchet (or quarter note), as shown to the right, while a 2/2 would show a minim (or half note). In compound time signatures the beat consists of three note durations (so there are 3 quavers (eighth notes) per beat in a 6/8 time signature), so a dotted form of the next note duration up is used. The most common compound signatures: 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8, therefore use a dotted crotchet (dotted quarter note) to indicate their BPM. Exotic time and particularly slow time signatures may indicate their BPM tempo using other note durations. BPM became common terminology in disco because of its usefulness to DJs, and remain important in the same genre and other dance music.

In this context the beats measured are either crotchets (quarter notes) in the time signature (sometimes ambiguously called down-beats), or drum beats (typically bass-drum or another functionally similar synthesized sound), whichever is more frequent. Higher BPM values are therefore achievable by increasing the number of drum beats, without increasing the tempo of the music. House music is faster around 120128 BPM (from regular house music to UK Garage), Trance Music ranges from 125 to

150 BPM,[3] and Drum and bassgenerally ranges between 150180 BPM. Psytrance is almost exclusively produced at 145 BPM,
[citation needed]

whereas Speedcore and Gabber music exceed 180 BPM.

Extreme tempos
More extreme tempos are achievable at the same underlying tempo with very fast drum patterns, often expressed as drum rolls. Such compositions often exhibit a much slower underlying tempo, but may increase the tempo by adding additional percussive beats. Extreme music subgenres such as speedcore and grindcore often strive to reach unusually fast tempos. The use of extreme tempo was very common in the fast bebop jazz from the 1940s and 1950s. A common jazz tune such as "Cherokee" was often performed at quarter note equal to or sometimes exceeding 368 BPM. Some of Charlie Parker's famous tunes ("Bebop", "Shaw Nuff") have been performed at 380 BPM plus. John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" was performed at 374 BPM.

Beatmatching
Beatmatching is a tool used by DJs that involves speeding up or slowing down a record in order to match the tempo of a previous track so both can be seamlessly mixed. DJs often beatmatch the underlying tempos of recordings, rather than their strict BPM value suggested by the kick drum, particularly when dealing with high tempo tracks. A 240 BPM track, for example, will match the beat of a 120 BPM track without slowing down or speeding up, because both will have an underlying tempo of 120 crotchets (quarter notes) per minute. Thus, some soul music (around 7590 BPM) can be mixed well with a drum and bass beat (from 150185 BPM). When speeding up or slowing down a record on a turntable, the pitch and tempo of a track are linked: spin a disc 10% faster and both pitch and tempo will be 10% higher. Software processing to change the pitch without changing the tempo, or vice-versa, is called time-stretching or pitch-shifting. While it works fairly well for small adjustments ( 20%), the result can be noisy and unmusical for larger changes.

Measures per minute

Measures per Minute (MPM) or bars per minute is another way to measure the speed of music: the number of measures in one minute. It is commonly used in ballroom dancemusic.

Italian tempo markings

"Andante" redirects here. For other uses, see Andante (disambiguation). See also: Italian musical terms used in English and Glossary of musical terminology The definitions of the Italian tempo markings mentioned in this section can be found in the Harvard Dictionary of Music and/or the online Italian-English dictionary, both of which are listed in Sources.

Basic tempo markings

By adding an -issimo ending the word is amplified/made louder, by adding an -ino or -etto ending the word is diminished/made softer. The metronome marks are broad approximations. Note: Metronome markings are a guide only and depending on the time signature and the piece itself, these figures may not be appropriate in every circumstance. Also, in longer pieces such as symphony movements, the tempo marking used by the composer for the movement does not have to be adhered to strictly throughout the movement; individual interpreters may vary the tempo at times, at their discretion. Slow:

Larghissimo very, very slow (19 BPM and under) Grave slow and solemn (2040 BPM) Lento slowly (4045 BPM)


Fast:

Largo broadly (4550 BPM) Larghetto rather broadly (5055 BPM) Adagio slow and stately (literally, "at ease") (5565 BPM) Adagietto rather slow (6569 BPM) Andante moderato a bit slower than andante (6972 BPM) Andante at a walking pace (7377 BPM) Andantino slightly faster than andante (although in some cases it can be taken to mean slightly slower than andante) (7883 BPM) Marcia moderato moderately, in the manner of a march[4][5] (8385 BPM) Moderato moderately (8697 BPM)

Allegretto moderately fast (98109 BPM) Allegro fast, quickly and bright (109132 BPM) Vivace lively and fast (132140 BPM) Vivacissimo very fast and lively (140150 BPM) Allegrissimo very fast (150167 BPM) Presto very fast (168177 BPM) Prestissimo extremely fast (178 BPM and over)

Additional terms
A piacere the performer may use their own discretion with regard to tempo and rhythm; literally "at pleasure" [6] L'istesso tempo or Lo stesso tempo at the same speed Tempo comodo at a comfortable (normal) speed Tempo di... the speed of a ... (such as Tempo di valse (speed of a waltz, 60 bpm), Tempo di marcia (speed of a march, 120 bpm)) Tempo giusto at a consistent speed, at the 'right' speed, in strict tempo Tempo semplice simple, regular speed, plainly

Common qualifiers

alla in the manner or style of, as in: alla breve in short style, i.e., duple time, with the half note (minim) rather than the quarter note (crotchet) as the beat; cut time; 2/2 instead of 4/4; often marked as a C with a vertical line through it (see Time signature) alla marcia in the manner of a march[7] (e.g., Beethoven, op. 101) all' ongarese in Hungarian style alla (danza) tedesca in the style of the Lndler (c. 1800), and similar dances in rather quick triple meter (see Beethoven, op. 79, op. 130)[8] alla turca in the Turkish style, that is, in imitation of Turkish military music (Janizary music), which became popular in Europe in the late 18th century (e.g., Mozart, K. 331, K. 384) alla zingarese in the style of Gypsy music assai very much, as in allegro assai, quite fast[9]

ben well, as in ben marcato (well marked or accented) con bravura with skill[10] con brio with vigor and spirit[11] con fuoco with fire con moto with motion deciso decidedly, decisively fugato in fugal style, usually part of a non-fugal composition; such passages often occur in the development sections of symphonies, sonatas, and quartets[12] in modo in the manner of, in the style of: in modo napolitano (in Neapolitan style), in modo di marcia funebre (in the manner of a funeral march) meno less, as in meno mosso (less quickly)[13] appena almost none, as in appena forte (almost not at all loud) misterioso mysterious molto much, very, as in molto allegro (very quick) or molto adagio (very slow)[14] non troppo not too much, e.g. allegro non troppo (or allegro ma non troppo) means "fast, but not too much" non tanto not so much pi more, as in pi allegro (more quickly); used as a relative indication when the tempo changes piuttosto rather, as in piuttosto allegro (rather quick)[15] poco slightly, little, as in Poco adagio poco a poco little by little polacca generic name for Polish dances, usually the polonaise, as in tempo di polacca; note, however, that the "Polacca" in Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 shows little resemblance to the polonaise[16] primo principal or early, as in tempo primo, the same tempo as at the beginning quasi almost, nearly, as if (such as Pi allegro quasi presto, "faster, as if presto") senza without, as in senza interruzione (without interruption or pause), senza tempo or senza misura (without strict measure)[17] sostenuto sustained, prolonged subito suddenly

Note: In addition to the common allegretto, composers freely apply Italian diminutive and superlative suffixes to various tempo indications: andantino, larghetto, adagietto, andlarghissimo.

Mood markings with a tempo connotation

Some markings that primarily mark a mood (or character) also have a tempo connotation:

Affettuoso with feeling/emotion Agitato agitated, with implied quickness Appassionato to play passionately Animato animatedly, lively Brillante sparkling, glittering, as in Allegro brillante, Rondo brillante, or Variations brillantes; became fashionable in titles for virtuoso pieces[18] Bravura broadly Cantabile in singing style (lyrical and flowing) Dolce sweetly

Energico energetic, strong, forceful Eroico heroically Espressivo expressively Furioso to play in an angry or furious manner Giocoso merrily, funny Gioioso joyfully Grandioso magnificently, grandly Grazioso gracefully Lacrimoso tearfully, sadly Lamentoso lamenting, mournfully Leggiero to play lightly, or with light touch Leggiadro lightly and gracefully Maestoso majestic or stately (which generally indicates a solemn, slow march-like movement) Malinconico melancholic Marcato marching tempo, marked with emphasis Marziale in a march style, usually in simple, strongly marked rhythm and regular phrases Mesto sad, mournful Misterioso mystical, in a shady manner Morendo dying Nobilmente nobly (in a noble way) Patetico with great emotion Pesante heavily Saltando jumpy, fast, and short Scherzando playfully Sostenuto sustained, sometimes with a slackening of tempo Spiccato slow sautill, with a bouncy manner Tenerezza tenderness Tranquillamente adverb of tranquillo, "calmly" Trionfante triumphantly Vivace lively and fast, over 140 BPM (which generally indicates a fast movement)

Terms for change in tempo

Composers may use expressive marks to adjust the tempo:

Accelerando speeding up (abbreviation: accel.) Allargando growing broader; decreasing tempo, usually near the end of a piece Calando going slower (and usually also softer) Doppio movimento / doppio pi mosso double speed Doppio pi lento half speed Lentando gradual slowing and softer Meno mosso less movement or slower Mosso movement, more lively, or quicker, much like pi mosso, but not as extreme Pi mosso more movement or faster

Precipitando hurrying, going faster/forward Rallentando gradual slowing down (abbreviation: rall.) Ritardando slowing down gradually; also see rallentando and ritenuto (abbreviations: rit., ritard.) Ritenuto slightly slower; temporarily holding back. (Note that the abbreviation for ritenuto can also be rit. Thus a more specific abbreviation is riten. Also sometimes ritenutodoes not reflect a tempo change but a character change instead.) Rubato free adjustment of tempo for expressive purposes Stretto in faster tempo, often near the conclusion of a section. (Note that in fugal compositions, the term stretto refers to the imitation of the subject in close succession, before the subject is completed, and as such, suitable for the close of the fugue.[19] Used in this context, the term is not necessarily related to tempo.)

Stringendo pressing on faster (literally "tightening")

While the base tempo indication (such as allegro) appears in large type above the staff, these adjustments typically appear below the staff or (in the case of keyboard instruments) in the middle of the grand staff. They generally designate a gradual change in tempo; for immediate tempo shifts, composers normally just provide the designation for the new tempo. (Note, however, that when Pi Mosso or Meno Mosso appears in large type above the staff, it functions as a new tempo, and thus implies an immediate change.) Several terms, e.g., assai, molto, poco, subito, control how large and how gradual a change should be (see common qualifiers). After a tempo change, a composer may return to a previous tempo in two different ways:

a tempo returns to the base tempo after an adjustment (e.g. "ritardando ... a tempo" undoes the effect of the ritardando). Tempo primo or Tempo I denotes an immediate return to the piece's original base tempo after a section in a different tempo (e.g. "Allegro ... Lento ... Moderato .... Tempo I" indicates a return to the Allegro). This indication often functions as a structural marker in pieces in binary form.

These terms also indicate an immediate, not a gradual, tempo change. Although they are Italian, composers typically use them even if they have written their initial tempo marking in some other language.

Tempo markings in other languages

See also: Glossary of musical terminology Although Italian has been the prevalent language for tempo markings throughout most of classical music history, many composers have written tempo indications in their own language. The definitions of the tempo markings mentioned in this section can be found in the Harvard Dictionary of Music and/or the online foreign language dictionaries which are listed in Sources.

French tempo markings

Several composers have written markings in French, among them baroque composers Franois Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau as well as Claude Debussy, Olivier Messiaen,Maurice Ravel and Alexander Scriabin. Common tempo markings in French are:

Au mouvement play the (first or main) tempo. Grave slowly and solemnly Lent slowly Modr at a moderate tempo

Moins less, as in Moins vite (less fast) Rapide fast Trs very, as in Trs vif (very lively) Vif lively Vite fast

Erik Satie was known to write extense tempo (and character) markings by defining them in a poetical and literal way, as in his Gnossiennes.[20]

German tempo markings

Many composers have used German tempo markings. Typical German tempo markings are:

Langsam slowly Lebhaft lively (mood) Mig moderately Rasch quickly Schnell fast Bewegt animated, with motion[21]

One of the first German composers to use tempo markings in his native language was Ludwig van Beethoven. The one using the most elaborate combined tempo and mood markings was probably Gustav Mahler. For example, the second movement of his Symphony No. 9 is marked Im Tempo eines gemchlichen Lndlers, etwas tppisch und sehr derb , indicating a slowish folkdancelike movement, with some awkwardness and much vulgarity in the execution. Mahler would also sometimes combine German tempo markings with traditional Italian markings, as in the first movement of his sixth symphony, marked Allegro energico, ma non troppo. Heftig, aber markig (Energetically quick, but not too much. Violent, but vigorous [22]).

English tempo markings

English indications, for example quickly, have also been used, by Benjamin Britten and Percy Grainger, among many others. In jazz and popular music charts, terms like "fast", "laid back", "steady rock", "medium", "medium-up", "ballad", "brisk", "up", "slowly", and similar style indications may appear. In Tom Lehrer's anthology Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer, fake English tempo markings are used to humorous effect. For example, the song "National Brotherhood Week" is to be played "fraternally", "We Will All Go Together" should be performed "eschatologically", and "Masochism Tango" should be played "painstakingly".

Tempo markings as movement names and compositions with a tempo indicator name
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Often, composers (or music publishers) will name movements of compositions after their tempo (and/or mood) marking. For instance the second movement of Samuel Barber's firstString Quartet is an "Adagio".[23] Some such movements may start to lead a life of their own, and become known with the tempo/mood marker name, for instance the string orchestra version of the second movement of Barber's first string quartet became known as Adagio for Strings. A similar example is the Adagietto from Mahler's Symphony No. 5. Sometimes the link between a musical composition with a "tempo" name and a separate movement of a composition is less clear. For instance, Albinoni's Adagio is a 20th-century creative "reconstruction" based on an incomplete manuscript.

Some composers chose to include tempo indicators in the name of a separate composition, for instance Bartk in Allegro barbaro ("barbaric Allegro"), a single movement composition.

Rushing and dragging

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When performers unintentionally speed up, they are said to rush. The similar term for unintentionally slowing down is drag. Musicians generally consider unintentional tempo drift undesirable, and these terms thus carry a negative connotation. Therefore neither rush nor drag (nor their equivalents in other languages) are often used as tempo indications in scores. Mahler is a notable exception. For example, he usedschleppend (dragging) as part of a tempo indication in the first movement of his Symphony No. 1.

See also

A capriccio Alla breve As Slow As Possible Half time (music) Multitemporal music Stop-time

References
1. 2. 3. 4. ^ See "metronome" entry in Apel (1969), p. 523. ^ music theory online: tempo, Dolmetsch.com ^ Snoman (2009), p. 251. ^ American Symphony Orchestra League (1998). Journal of the Conductors' Guild, Vols. 1819. Viena: The League. p. 27. ISSN 0734-1032 5. ^ William E. Caplin, James Hepokoski, James Webster (2010). Musical Form, Forms & Formenlehre: Three Methodological Reflections. Leuven University Press. p. 80. ISBN 905-867-822-9. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. ^ Apel (1969), p. 42; for the literal translation see the online Italian-English dictionary at WordReference.com. ^ Apel (1969), p. 505. ^ Apel (1969), p. 834. ^ Apel (1969), p. 61. ^ Online Italian-English dictionary at WordReference.com. ^ Apel (1969), p. 112. ^ Apel (1969), p. 334. ^ Apel (1969), p. 520. ^ Apel (1969), p. 537. ^ Apel (1969), p. 680. ^ Apel (1969), p. 683. ^ Apel (1969), p. 763. ^ "Brillante" entry in Sadie (2001).

19. 20. 21. 22. 23.

^ Apel (1969), p. 809. ^ Gnossiennes music sheet, IMSLP Music Library ^ Apel (1969), p. 92. ^ Italian translation, WordReferece.com; German, Apel (1969). ^ Heyman, Barbara B. (1994-05-12). Samuel Barber: the composer and his music. Oxford University Press. p. 158. ISBN 0-19509058-6.

Sources
Books on tempo in music:

Epstein, David (1995). Shaping Time: Music, the Brain, and Performance. New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 0-02873320-7. Marty, Jean-Pierre (1988). The tempo indications of Mozart. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-03852-6. Sachs, Curt (1953). Rhythm and Tempo: A Study in Music History. New York: Norton. OCLC 391538. Snoman, Rick (2009). The Dance Music Manual: Tools, Toys, and Techniques Second Edition. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Press. ISBN 0-9748438-4-9.

Music Dictionaries:

Apel, Willi, ed., Harvard Dictionary of Music, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1969. ISBN 978-0-674-37501-7 Sadie, Stanley; John Tyrrell, eds. (2001). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , 2nd edition. NewYork: Grove's Dictionaries. ISBN 1-56159-239-0.

External links

Research group specializing in rhythm, timing, and tempo, University of Amsterdam Tempo indications in Mozart's music Tempo Terminology, Virginia Tech department of music Tempo indications for social dances Tempo variation among and within 300+ recorded performances of Beethoven's 'Eroica' Symphony Dolmetsch article on tempo