IT a tempo tempo modification core term Support my free tools
- Abbreviation
- a t.
How is a tempo played?
After ritardando, rallentando, accelerando or rubato, cancel the fluctuation and re-establish the prevailing pulse. This normally means the tempo immediately before the deviation, not necessarily the movement's opening speed, and it acts as a re-synchronising cue for an ensemble. Older dictionaries sometimes describe a return to the first tempo, so tempo primo or the surrounding score is decisive when the opening tempo is intended. Tempo primo is the more categorical instruction for returning to that original speed.
How does a tempo sound?
The music settles back into its steady gait after a moment of give, so the preceding stretch or push registers as a deliberate, framed expressive event rather than a permanent change.
In context
A tempo is ubiquitous in common-practice repertoire because rubato, ritardando and fermatas need a clear point of resolution; from Mozart and Beethoven onward it marks where local expressive freedom ends. Teaching convention therefore contrasts its return to the preceding pulse with Tempo I's explicit return to the opening. Brockhaus and other historical music dictionaries attest a t., with punctuation variants, while A-R and Trinity print the full words, making the abbreviation documented but not a universal modern house style.
Equivalent terms
- FR au mouvement
- FR reprenez le mouvement
- DE wieder im Tempo
- EN back in tempo