Re: How do you tell tempo for indications in English

[Michael Ellis]

Hi Patrick, 

Short of conducting extensive field research in Ireland's pubs, you might try asking the question here.

http://www.thesession.org/discussions/

Cheers,
Mike

On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 6:59 AM, James Lowe <address@hidden> wrote:

Hello,

-----Original Message-----
From: lilypond-user-bounces+james.lowe=datacore.com@gnu.org [mailto:lilypond-user-bounces+james.lowe=datacore.com@gnu.org] On Behalf Of Patrick Horgan
Sent: 02 February 2011 04:05
To: Mailinglist lilypond-user
Subject: How do you tell tempo for indications in English

I'm setting some of O'Neill's Irish tunes, and the tempo indications are (a selection):

Animated, Boldly, Cheerful, Cheerfully, Gaily, Gracefully, Moderate, Plaintive, Plaintively, Playful, Playfully, Rather slow, Slow, Slow and distinctly, Slow and mournful, Slow and tenderly, Slow and with feeling, Slow with _expression_, Slow and feeling, Spirited, Tenderly, Very slow, With animation, With _expression_, With feeling, With spirit

What do you do with that?  I can find tables of usual tempo ranges for italian tempo indications, but I have no idea what to do with these.
I'd like them to be authentic, in that the midi file would be about as fast as the tune would usually be played in an Irish pub.  Does anyone have any ideas?

---

I don’t think there is such a thing a 'authentic' tempo range if you are referring to setting crotchet/quaver/minim tempo speeds.

What you are asking, it seems is, 'what speed is 'cheerful''?

Which doesn't makes much sense.

I expect it was simply played 'cheerfully' and that would depend on who was doing the playing. Also can you be sure that the same tune played in one 'Irish pub' is any different from a 'non-Irish pub' or that other 'Irish pub' down the road? The music is probably played as fast or slow as the musicians play it and that can depend on how many times they have played together, the smell of the crowd or simply the number of pints  of the 'black stuff' they have put away before/during the gig. ;) 110201-000063

Sorry if that sounds a bit flippant, but I am not sure what kind of answer you are going to get other than someone else's guestimation of which you could do yourself.

Tempo in terms of words (rather than beat numbers) is more about feeling than speed.

James

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