Expression & tempo
A tempo
A tempo instructs the player to return to the previous speed after a passage that slowed down or sped up, most often following a ritardando or a rubato passage.
It cancels a temporary change rather than setting a new speed, which means you have to know which tempo it is returning to. After a ritardando in the middle of a movement, a tempo means the tempo before that ritardando, not the tempo at the start of the piece.
Where a composer wants the original opening tempo specifically, the marking is tempo primo or tempo I. Where a new speed is intended, a new marking appears instead.
In ensemble playing the return is a conducted moment, and players who have been stretching a rubato need to be watching for it, which is one of the everyday reasons a string section keeps one eye up.
Related terms
Every term in this glossary is taught in context somewhere in Arco's curricula, on the staff, on the keyboard, and on your own fingerboard at the same time.