Page:Music Notation and Terminology - 1921.djvu/66

50 MUSIC NOTATION AND TERMTNOLOGY musician of long experience, sure judgment, and sound scholarship. 3. A third method of finding tempi is through the inter- pretation of certain words used quite universally by composers to indicate the approximate rate of speed and the general mood of compositions. The diiii- culty with this method is that one can hardly find two composers who employ the same word to indicate the same tempo, so that no absolute rate of speed can be indicated, and in the last analysis the con- ductor or performer must fall back on the second method cited above -- i.e., individual judgment. 109. In spite of the inexactness of use in the case of ex- pressions relating to tempo, these expressions are nevertheless extremely useful in giving at least a hint of what was in the composer’s mind as he conceived the music that we are trying to interpret. Since a number of the terms overlap in mean- ing, and since the meaning of no single term is absolute, these expressions relating to tempo are best studied in groups. Perhaps the most convenient grouping is as follows: 1. Grave (lit. weighty, serious), larghissimo, adagissimo, and lentissimo-indicating the very slowest tempo used in rendering music. 2. Largo) udagiof and lento - indicating quite a slow tempo. 3. Larghetto (i.e., a little largo) and adagietto (a little adagio) -a slow tempo, but not quite so slow as largo, etc. 4. Andante (going, or walking, as contrasted with run- ning) and andantino -indicating a moderately slow tempo. ‘ Largo, larghetto, etc., are derivatives of the Iatin word largus, meaning large, broad. ' Adagio means literally at ease. ‘ (N