tempo (redirected from Tempo (music))

tempo [Ital.,=time], in music, the speed of a composition. The composer's intentions as to tempo are conventionally indicated by a set of Italian terms, of which the principal ones are presto (very fast), vivace (lively), allegro (fast), moderato (moderate), andante (moderate, literally a "walking" tempo), adagio (slow), lento (slower than adagio), and largo (very slow); accelerando (increasing the speed) and ritardando (slowing down) are directions to alter the tempo momentarily and are canceled by a tempo. Since Beethoven's time many composers have given metronomic indications, which, despite their seeming infallibility, are often misleading, and tempo remains a point of subjective interpretation. Acoustical factors influence the choice of a tempo but account less for the divergence between different performances than does the performer's interpretation of the work.

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1.		TEMPO - A programming language with simple syntax and semantics designed for teaching semantic and pragmatic aspects of programming languages. ["TEMPO: A Unified Treatment of Binding Time and Parameter Passing Concepts in Programming Languages", N.D. Jones et al, LNCS 66, Springer 1978].
2.	(operating system)	Tempo - The original code name for Mac OS version 8.