Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/101

TEMPO.  by modern instrumentalists, which have induced composers to write quicker music, and on the other, at least in the case of the pianoforte, the superior sostenuto possible on modern instruments as compared with those of former times. The period to which the music belongs must therefore be taken into account in determining the exact tempo. But besides this, the general character of a composition, especially as regards harmonic progression, exercises a very decided influence on the tempo. For the apparent speed of a movement does not depend so much upon the actual duration of the beats, as upon the rate at which the changes of harmony succeed each other. If, therefore, the harmonies in a composition change frequently, the tempo will appear quicker than it would if unvaried harmonies were continued for whole bars, even though the metronome-time, beat for beat, might be the same. On this account it is necessary, in order to give effect to a composer's indication of tempo, to study the general structure of the movement, and if the changes of harmony are not frequent, to choose a quicker rate of speed than would be necessary if the harmonies were more varied. For example, the first movement of Beethoven's Sonata, op. 22, marked Allegro, may be played at the rate of about = 72, but the first movement of op. 31, no. 2, though also marked Allegro, will require a tempo of at least  = 120, on account of the changes of harmony being less frequent, and the same may be observed of the two adagio movements, both in 9-8 time, of op. 22 and op. 31, no. 1; in the second of these most bars are founded upon a single harmony, and a suitable speed would be about  = 116, a rate which would be too quick for the Adagio of op. 22, where the harmonies are more numerous.

Another cause of greater actual speed in the rendering of the same tempo is the use of the time-signature or alla breve, which requires the composition to be executed at about double the speed of the Common or  Time. The reason of this is explained in the article, vol. i. p. 274.

A portion of a composition is sometimes marked a piacere, or ad libitum, at 'pleasure,' signifying that the tempo is left entirely to the performer's discretion. Passages so marked however appear almost always to demand a slower, rather than a quicker tempo—at least, the writer is acquainted with no instance to the contrary. [ F. T. ]

TEMPO DI BALLO is the indication at the head of Sullivan's Overture composed for the Birmingham Festival 1870, and seems less to indicate a particular speed than that the whole work is in a dance style and in dance measures. [ G. ]

TEMPO ORDINARIO (Ital.), common time, rhythm of four crotchets in a bar. The time-signature is an unbarred semicircle, or in modern form , in contradistinction to the barred semicircle or , which denotes a diminished value of the notes, i.e. a double rate of movement. [See ; .] In consequence of the notes in tempo ordinario being of full value (absolutely as well as relatively), the term is understood to indicate a moderate degree of speed. It is in this sense that Handel employs it as an indication for the choruses 'Lift up your heads,' 'Their sound is gone out,' etc. [ F. T. ]

TEMPO RUBATO (Ital., literally robbed or stolen time). This expression is used in two different senses; first, to denote the insertion of a short passage in duple time into a movement the prevailing rhythm of which is triple, or vice versa, the change being effected without altering the time-signature, by means of false accents, or accents falling on other than the ordinary places in the bar. Thus the rhythm of the following example is distinctly that of two in a bar, although the whole movement is 3-4 time.

2. In the other and more usual sense the term expresses the opposite of strict time, and indicates a style of performance in which some portion of the bar is executed at a quicker or slower tempo than the general rate of movement, the balance being restored by a corresponding slackening or quickening of the remainder. [.] Perhaps the most striking instances of the employment of tempo rubato are found in the rendering of Hungarian national melodies by native artists. [ F. T. ]

TENDUCCI,, a celebrated sopranist singer, very popular in this country, was born at Siena, about 1736, whence (like a still greater singer) he was sometimes called Senesino. His earliest stage-appearances in Italy were made at about twenty years of age, and in 1758 he came to London, where he first sang in a pasticcio called 'Attalo.' But it was in the 'Ciro riconosciuto' of Cocchi that he first attracted special notice. Although he had only a subordinate part, he quite eclipsed, by his voice and style, the principal singer, Portenza, and from that time was established as the successor of Guadagni. In company with Dr. Arne, in whose 'Artaxerxes' he sang with great success, he travelled to Scotland and Ireland, returning to London in 1765, where he was the idol of the fashionable world, and received enormous sums for his performances. In spite of this, his vanity and extravagance were so unbounded that in