ting at the correct tempo but is
open only to the musician of long experience, sure judgment,
and sound scholarship.

3. A third method of finding tempi is through the
interpretation of certain words used quite universally by
composers to indicate the approximate rate of speed and the
general mood of compositions. The difficulty with this method
is that one can hardly find two composers who employ the same
word to indicate the same tempo, so that no absolute rate of
speed can be indicated, and in the last analysis the conductor
or performer must fall back on the second method cited
above--_i.e._, individual judgment.

109. In spite of the inexactness of use in the case of expressions
relating to tempo, these expressions are nevertheless extremely useful
in giving at least a hint of what was in the composer's mind as he
conceived the music that we are trying to interpret. Since a number of
the terms overlap in meaning, and since the meaning of no single term is
absolute, these expressions relating to tempo are best studied in
groups. Perhaps the most convenient grouping is as follows:

1. _Grave_ (lit. weighty, serious), _larghissimo_,
_adagissimo_, and _lentissimo_--indicating the very slowest
tempo used in rendering music.

2. _Largo_,[26] _adagio_,[27] and _lento_--indicating quite a
slow tempo.

[Footnote 26: Largo, larghetto, etc., are derivatives of the
Latin word _largus_, meaning large, broad.]

[Footnote 27: Adagio means literally at ease.]

3. _Larghetto_ (_i.e._, _a little largo_) and _adagietto_ (_a
little adagio_)--a slow tempo, but not quite so slow as
_largo_, etc.

4. _Andante_ (going, or walking, as contrasted with running)
and _andantino_--indicating a moderately slow tempo.

_Andantino_ is now quite universally taken slightly faster
than _andante_, in spite of the fact that if _andante_ means
"going," and if "_ino_" is the diminutive ending, then
_andantino_ means "going less," _i.e._, more slowly!

5. _Moderato_--a moderate tempo.

6. _Allegro_ and _allegretto_[28]--a moderately quick tempo,
_allegretto_ being usually interpreted as meaning a tempo
somewhat slower than _allegro_.

[Footnote 28: There has been some difference of opinion as to
which of these two terms indicates the more rapid tempo: an
analysis tel