User manual

Table Of Contents
Tempo marks
Tempo marks indicate how fast music is played, often with a combination of text instructions and
metronome marks. They are also known as “tempo changes”, “tempo indications”, and “tempo
markings”.
A tempo mark can show text instructions, a metronome mark, or a combination of the two.
Tempo mark containing text instruction in French and metronome mark
Text instructions are traditionally expressed in Italian, such as largo or allegretto, but other
languages, such as English, French, and German, have become widely accepted. The text
instruction can express simply how fast the music is played, but can also suggest its character.
For example, grave means slow but also solemn and sad, and vivo means fast but also lively and
sprightly.
Metronome marks show the speed of the music, indicated in beats per minute, or “bpm”.
Metronome marks can show a xed bpm or indicate a range of possible or acceptable values.
Gradual tempo changes indicate a change in tempo over a dened period of time. They can
appear differently, for example, with/without a continuation line or with the text split into
syllables and spread across their duration.
Tempo marks use a bold font with a large point size, so they are clearly noticeable on the page.
They do not usually use an italic font.
In Dorico SE, tempo marks are categorized as system objects. Therefore, tempo marks follow
your per-layout settings for the visibility and positioning of system objects, which you can change
on the
Staves and Systems page in Setup > Layout Options.
By default, the tempo marks you input set the tempo for playback and MIDI recording, but you
can change the tempo mode if, for example, you want to use a single xed tempo when
recording MIDI. Gradual tempo changes also affect the playback tempo, and you can change the
nal tempo at the end of gradual tempo changes, for example, if you want to reach a specic
bpm at the end. If you do not input any tempo marks into your project, the default playback
tempo is 120 bpm.
RELATED LINKS
Metronome marks on page 825
Gradual tempo changes on page 828
Tempo mark components on page 823
Time track on page 401
Input methods for tempo marks on page 217
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Dorico SE 3.1.10