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In the tempo of a bolero.
Printed above the staff as a heading, sometimes extended with a further qualifier, as in Ravel’s Tempo di Bolero moderato assai; it lasts until the next tempo word, and in a piece that never changes tempo it governs the whole work.
It points to the Spanish bolero: triple metre with a characteristic triplet-inflected rhythm on the first beat and a steady, processional pulse. The genre name implies rhythm and character more than an exact speed, so qualify it if the pace matters — Ravel added moderato assai. Make the accompaniment rhythm explicit in the parts; the heading alone will not supply it.
Ravel, Boléro, flute part, m. 1: “Tempo di Bolero moderato assai”, the single tempo heading that governs the whole work.
Tempo di bolero is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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