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Tempo giusto

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For the Finnish trance music DJ, see Tempo Giusto (composer).
An example of a piece in tempo giusto

Tempo giusto (Italian pronunciation: [ˈtɛmpo ˈdʒusto]) is a musical term that means 'in correct time'.[1]

General

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In the 17th and 18th centuries (Baroque and early Classical), tempo giusto referred to the idea that each meter has its own 'ideal' tempo; this was also referred to as tempo ordinario (ordinary time). The larger the beat value of the meter, the slower the tempo. Therefore, meters with beat values of a minim/half note (e.g. 2
2, 3
2) should be performed with a slow tempo; those with quaver/eighth note beats (e.g. 3
8) are fast; while those with crotchet/quarter note beats (e.g. 2
4, 3
4, 4
4) are performed at a moderate or middling tempo. This convention started in Italy in the 1600s (seicento),[2] and continued in Germany in the 1700s, as theorized by Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (1755) and Johann Kirnberger (1776; see sequel):[3]

Regarding meter types, those having larger beats [values], like allabreve, 3/2, and 6/4 meter, have a heavier and slower movement [tempo] than those with smaller beats [values] like 2/4, 3/4, and 6/8 meter, and these in turn are less lively than 3/8 or 6/16 meter.[3][4]

Conventions existed for what the "correct" tempo for a particular style was, notably detailed for French dances in Michel L'Affilard (1691–1717).[5][6]

The composer and music theorist Johann Kirnberger (1776) formalized and refined this idea by instructing the performer to consider the following details in combination when determining the best performance tempo of a piece: the tempo giusto of the meter, the tempo term (Allegro, Adagio, etc., if there is one, at the start of the piece), the particular rhythms in the piece (taking account of the longest and shortest notes), the 'character' of the piece, and the piece's genre (whether it was a minuet, sarabande, gigue, etc.). In this way, an experienced musician could rely on his/her (informed) intuition to find the 'right' tempo.[7] Occasionally, a composer will mark a piece tempo giusto to request the performer to use his/her experience in this way: that is, to intuit the correct tempo from the structure and nature of the piece itself.[1]

From the mid-18th century, the notion of each meter having an 'ideal tempo' fell out of fashion, as composers started preferring to indicate tempo with tempo terms and (later, in the nineteenth century) with metronome markings.

Life Movement

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The term has given rise to a whole life movement, which advises the modern world to stop plowing through life at breakneck speed, and to start living instead at the “right tempo." Man is told to live by his inner tempo.[8]

The artistic director of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Maestro John DeMain, has said, “[n]ow that I think about it, the idea of tempo giusto describes just about everything I do or aspire to."[9]

References

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  1. ^ a b David Fallows. 'Tempo giusto' in Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. www.oxfordmusiconline.com. Accessed 20 Feb 2015.
  2. ^ Lawrence-King, Andrew (2022-02-24). "Measuring musical time in late-17th-century Italy".
  3. ^ a b Dokter, Julia (2021). Tempo and Tactus in the German Baroque. University of Rochester Press. p. 144. ISBN 9781648250187.
  4. ^ Kirnberger 1776, p. 106–107.
  5. ^ Michel L'Affilard, Principes trés-faciles pour bien apprendre la musique, (Paris, 1691; Amsterdam, 1717)
  6. ^ van Biezen, Jan (1988). "Maatsoorten en tempo in de eerste helft van de 18de eeuw, in het bijzonder in de orgelwerken van Johann Sebastian Bach" [Time signatures and tempo in the first half of the 18th century, in particular in the organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach]. Bachs 'Orgel-Büchlein' in nieuw perspectief (in Dutch).
  7. ^ Kirnberger, Johann Philipp. 1771–76. Die Kunst des reinen Satzes in der Musik. 2 vols. Berlin: Christian Friedrich Boß. Reprint vol. 1 Berlin und Königsberg: G. J. Decker und G. L. Hartung, 1774. Trans. David Beach and Jurgen Thym. 1982. The Art of Strict Musical Composition. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
  8. ^ Honoré, Carl. In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2004.
  9. ^ Anderson, Jess. "John DeMain: In Search of Tempo Giusto." Madison Magazine, August 2001. http://www.madisonmusicreviews.org/doc/p_200108_demain.html

See also

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