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In march tempo.
Printed above the staff as the heading of a movement or section, in later music often with a metronome mark; it lasts until the next tempo word, so a trio or contrasting strain carries its own heading if its pace differs.
It names a tempo by reference to a genre: a steady walking pulse, usually in duple metre, with firm downbeats. Because marches range from funeral processions to quick military steps, the phrase works best when the music’s own rhythm makes the kind of march obvious; add a metronome mark if it does not. Ragtime composers such as Joplin printed it over piano rags, tying them to the march tradition they grew from.
Joplin, Maple Leaf Rag, piano, m. 1: “Tempo Di Marcia”, the heading over the opening strain, marked f.
Tempo di marcia 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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