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In an ordinary, moderate tempo; in 18th-century usage it can also mean common time (4/4) counted in four, as distinct from alla breve.
Printed above the staff as a heading, chiefly in 18th-century music, where it can also signal a bar counted in four as opposed to alla breve. It lasts until the next tempo word.
In Baroque usage the phrase links speed to metre: four moderate beats in common time, neither hurried nor solemn, as opposed to the two broader beats of alla breve. A modern composer rarely needs it — Moderato or a metronome mark is clearer — but meeting it in an 18th-century score tells you to feel four steady beats per bar. If you do use it, expect performers to read it simply as “moderate”.
Tempo ordinario 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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