A Tempo
Back to the earlier tempo, ending the freedom or the slow-down
Related
A tempo tells the player to return to the previous tempo: it usually follows rubato, a ritardando or a fermata, meaning "the freedom is over, back to the pulse". It also implies re-establishing a steady beat.
It differs from tempo primo: a tempo returns to the speed just before, tempo primo to the speed at the start of the piece. The usual mistake is to treat a tempo as "just keep playing" — it is an explicit reset, and in an ensemble one person must give the new pulse.
Read deeper → Tempo
Sources
- a tempo 的用法与记谱，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Tempo and tempo marks"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.