In tempo

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff after a rit., rall., fermata or ad libitum passage, cancelling the slowing; the reader takes it as a tempo. It also appears inside longer phrases — in tempo (Allegro con fuoco), In tempo d’Allegro — which name the tempo to be resumed or adopted.

How Composers Use It

In practice in tempo and a tempo are interchangeable; some composers prefer in tempo because it sounds firmer, a warning that the return should be immediate and exact. It has a second use: insisting on strict time where freedom would be assumed, as when Beethoven asks the cellos and basses to play the Ninth Symphony’s instrumental recitatives in the character of a recitative, “mais in tempo”. Pick one form and use it consistently through a work.

Example

Liszt, Transcendental Étude No. 5 (“Feux follets”), m. 106: “in tempo.” restores the pace after “rall. e smorz.” in the bar before.

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